Hundreds of Ethiopians Flee Into Kenya as Flag Dispute Erupts Into Fighting in Moyale

Hundreds of people have fled across the border into neighbouring Kenya after fighting broke out between regional forces in the Ethiopian border town of Moyale. Kenyan police said on Thursday that most of those who crossed were women and children. The fighting was reportedly prompted by loyalists publicly raising the flag of a neighbouring majority-Somali state.

According to Kenyan police, the Ethiopians entered Kenya through several entry points in Moyale, including the Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation and Miti areas. The sudden arrival of so many people has heightened activity in the border area, and local authorities are working to manage the situation.

Police said the people who crossed the border were fleeing tensions between leaders of Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional states. Long-running friction between the two regional leaderships appears, in their account, to have turned this time into direct clashes.

Kenyan police also reported gunfire and chaotic scenes in Moyale. Panic spread through the town during the fighting, and ordinary residents left their homes in search of safety. The large number of women and children among those fleeing has deepened humanitarian concern.

Ethiopian media reported that the fighting in Moyale started on Sunday as a dispute over raising the flag of the Somali Regional State, a regional state in eastern Ethiopia. The way a flag-raising incident escalated into such large-scale fighting points to the depth of tension that had built up between the two sides.

That dispute gradually escalated into direct fighting between forces from the Oromia and Somali regions. With regional forces confronting each other, ordinary residents of the border town were placed in the greatest danger, and many were forced to flee towards Kenya.

The Kenya Red Cross has stepped in with humanitarian assistance. It said it was setting up temporary shelter and distributing essential items including cereal and porridge flour. For the families who have fled, food and shelter have become the most urgent needs.

In a statement on Thursday, the Kenya Red Cross said, 'The response will initially reach 1,000 households.' In other words, the first phase of relief has been designed to reach one thousand households, so that the most vulnerable people receive help quickly.

The organisation added that experts were conducting an assessment to work out how many people were affected and what their needs were. Once the assessment is complete, it is expected to be easier to decide whether to expand or reshape the assistance.

This regional clash is hundreds of kilometres away from a larger conflict in the northern Tigray region between government forces and a rebel alliance led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Violence in several parts of the country at the same time is disrupting ordinary life for many Ethiopians.

The Moyale episode shows how easily Ethiopia's regional divisions and identity tensions can spill across a border and create humanitarian pressure in a neighbouring country as well. Kenya's border area now hosts hundreds of displaced people, and their future depends on how quickly the fighting stops.

For now, the Kenya Red Cross relief and assessment work is the main support for those who have fled. Whether they will be able to return home once the clashes end, or whether their stay at the border will be prolonged, will become clear from how the situation in Moyale develops in the coming days.