People Fleeing Clan Fights Cross Into Kenya

The East African Standard (Nairobi) NEWSFebruary 14, 2007
Posted to the web February 14, 2007 By Adow Jubat

Kenya will have to contend with another wave of refugees, this time from Ethiopia where renewed clan fighting has pushed thousands onto the road to Moyale District.

The victims, most of them women and children, have been crossing into Kenya with their livestock for the past four days. Two of the Ethiopians are admitted at Moyale District Hospital with gunshot wounds.

More than 40 people were reportedly killed in the clan fighting pitting the Borana against the Gabra.

Moyale Medical Officer of Health, Dr Benedett Macharia, said one of the injured, Mr Sora Adhi Guyo, 75, who sustained three gunshot wounds had his right leg amputated.
Another victim, Dida Halake, was injured in the thigh.

Area DC, Mr Victor Okioma, said the Government would do everything to ensure the clashes do not spill into Kenya. The warring clans live on the both sides of the border and such skirmishes often come with the potential to spill across the border.

Okioma urged the clan elders at the border to initiate dialogue, saying the fights might scuttle the cross-border peace meetings brokered by Kenyan and Ethiopian governments. The peace meetings have been ongoing for the last two years.