36,000 Ethiopians flee into Kenya as border fighting continues

The number of people fleeing violence in Ethiopia into Kenya has risen to 36,000, the United Nations announced on Tuesday, as fighting near the border town of Moyale continues to displace civilians — mostly women and children.

The Kenya Red Cross says the displaced are sheltering in six camps and villages within host communities, where volunteers now prepare and serve hot meals daily alongside health services and household items. Political leaders in Marsabit County warned over the weekend of a deepening humanitarian crisis that could overwhelm host communities already struggling with food and water shortages worsened by climate change, and appealed for support the underfunded UN response has yet to deliver.

The fighting on the Ethiopian side stems from a territorial dispute between the Oromia and Somali regional administrations, aggravated by the killing of a 13-year-old girl in an area administered by the Somali region. It runs alongside the broader war facing Abiy Ahmed's government, which since September has confronted an alliance of former enemies — the TPLF, Fano and the Oromo Liberation Army — formed to overthrow it.

Police reported three incidents of stray bullets in Moyale last week, and local legislators told journalists they fear the fighting could spread to the Kenyan side as displaced and aggrieved people cross the border. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday called for an urgent humanitarian response to ease pressure on host communities.

The regional government that produces the displacement pays nothing for it; the neighbour absorbs the cost, and the UN adds another line to its fundraising appeals. Kenya now hosts an Ebola front in Nairobi and a refugee front at Moyale — one country absorbing the spillover of two of the continent's crises at once.