Ethiopia clashes push 50,000 to flee to Kenya

Fighting in southern Ethiopia has caused some 50,000 to flee over the border to Kenya since clashes erupted last week, the United Nations said on Wednesday, citing local authorities.

The figure represents a sharp jump from the 36,000 recorded on Tuesday by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in the wake of clashes between the armies of southern Ethiopia's Somali and Oromia regions.

"According to local authorities, up to an estimated 50,000 people have crossed into Kenya," said Fatima Mohammed-Cole, the UNHCR representative for Kenya.

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That number could quickly change given the situation on the ground, with fresh crossings being recorded, Mohammed-Cole warned.

The unrest was sparked on October 20 after a Somali regional flag was hoisted in Moyale, a city jointly administered between Somali and Oromia. Several people have died in clashes, sources told AFP on Saturday.

Many of those who had fled were women and children, Mohammed-Cole said.

"While some are staying with relatives and host communities, others have sought shelter in temporary locations like schools and churches," she added.

UNHCR has sent an emergency team to the region and is working with the Kenyan government, alongside other humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross, to provide aid to those displaced.

Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country at some 130 million people, is the scene of various armed conflicts across its vast territory.

The borderlands of its various regions, whose tracing dates back to 1991, are often the source of clashes.

Diplomatic disagreements with neighbouring Eritrea have likewise led to fears of another conflict between the fractious Horn of Africa neighbours. Ethiopian forces have pushed towards the Eritrean border in recent weeks.

Those fears were heightened during the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow on Wednesday after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Ethiopia received 12 Russian fighter jets.

"Ethiopia will also receive four "S-400 air defence system batteries", Ahmed added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "we are interested in Ethiopia and Eritrea normalising their relations".

For several years, the Ethiopian government has been locked in conflict with rebel movements in the Oromia and Amhara regions, the country's most populous.

After months of tensions, fighting has also broken out again in the northern Tigray region, already the scene of a devastating war from 2020 to 2022.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)