Kenya Sends More Police to Moyale Border as Four UN Agencies Appeal for $8.9 Million to Aid 50,000 Displaced People
MOYALE, Marsabit County, Kenya — Kenyan police on November 5 ordered additional officers to the border town of Moyale on the Kenya-Ethiopia frontier, as four United Nations agencies jointly appealed for $8.9 million to help about 50,000 people displaced by fighting in Moyale on the Ethiopian side.
Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja announced the reinforcement on Thursday, November 5, after chairing a high-level security assessment in Moyale, to prevent the conflict from spilling into Kenyan territory. The fighting stems from a territorial administration dispute in Ethiopian Moyale: the Somali regional administration opened an office and raised its regional flag in contested territory on October 18, and armed clashes with the Oromia side escalated on October 22.
County authorities and the UN refugee agency estimate that about 50,000 people had crossed into Kenya as of November 3, with more than 11,000 sheltering in temporary sites such as schools and churches, about seven in ten hosted by local communities, and 67 camps in the Moyale area. The UN refugee agency, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme appealed jointly on November 5 for $8.9 million (about 1.16 billion Kenyan shillings) to provide food, clean water, shelter and basic household items for up to 50,000 displaced people over three months, while planning a response for up to 80,000 people.
Stray fire has already reached the Kenyan side: the Kenya Red Cross said stray bullets have killed three Kenyans and wounded 20 others, including 65-year-old Amina Guchi, who was struck by a suspected stray bullet near county government offices in Moyale on November 2. The UN refugee agency has deployed an emergency team to Moyale and is mobilizing relief supplies, first supporting nearly 12,000 people.
Source: UN OCHA
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：连接肯尼亚与埃塞俄比亚的边境公路。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 2.0。 / Photo: The Kenya-Ethiopia highway near the Moyale border. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
