Fresh clashes have erupted between communities living along the Kenya-Ethiopia border, local authorities confirmed over the weekend.
The fighting began along the Kibish corridor in Turkana County after a Nyangatom herder from Ethiopia was allegedly killed by Turkana people who had been also accused of intercepting a truck with loaded goods.
Cross border movements are usually in search of food and water for grazing animals, a situation which causes competition and conflict over territory in an area blighted by drought in recent years.
The renewed clashes have disrupted activities including transport, trade, and other essential services, leaving residents in fear. Security officials from Kisii and Narok held an emergency meeting at the border to seek ways of restoring calm.
Kibish Deputy County Commissioner Tom Otieno said the incidents had disrupted an area that had remained largely peaceful, with authorities from both countries now working to contain the situation.
“The incident triggered the insecurity along the border that has been very peaceful. Peace spoilers from Kokuro village are the ones who crossed over to Ethiopia to raid and kill a Nyangatom herder, resulting in the isolated incidents in Kibish. We are trying to manage the situation in coordination with Ethiopian authorities,” Otieno said.
He said retaliatory attacks were likely whenever one community felt aggrieved, unless residents on both sides of the border restrained themselves and upheld peaceful coexistence.
Otieno said authorities had organised joint dialogue and several community engagements to pacify the area and prevent isolated incidents from escalating into wider conflict.
“There are a few thugs at the border that, as authorities from both countries, we will deal with. It is not communities fighting against each other but individuals who are hell-bent on spoiling peaceful coexistence between the border locals,” he said.
“There are a few thugs at the border that, as authorities from both countries, we will deal with. It is not communities fighting against each other but individuals who are hell-bent on spoiling peaceful coexistence between the border locals,” he said.
MG/as/APA