Ethiopia Moyale clashes spill into Kenya: three Kenyans killed, 50,000 cross border

Fighting in the Ethiopian border town of Moyale is now claiming lives in neighbouring Kenya, where three people have reportedly been killed and about 20 injured by stray fire.

The latest victim, a woman named Amina Guchi, was hit in the back of the head by what is believed to be a stray bullet at county government offices in Kenya's Moyale on Monday, 2 November, according to Kenyan media reports cited by Addis Standard.

Kenyan police also say three rocket-propelled grenades fired from the Ethiopian side landed in Kenya's Moyale, one at Sessi Primary School and two at the weather office. Military bomb experts destroyed them safely, and no one was hurt. Police have not said who fired them.

Moyale is split in two by the border. The violence on the Ethiopian side is between groups from the Oromia and Somali regions, which both claim the area. Tension rose after a 13-year-old was shot dead on 18 October, and heavy fighting broke out around 22 October over plans to open a Somali regional office and raise its flag in the disputed territory. A hospital official told Reuters at least nine people died in the first days, but no full death toll has been published.

Local authorities estimate that about 50,000 people, most of them women and children, have fled into Kenya's Marsabit County. The UN refugee agency says the number keeps changing, and UN agencies are appealing for $8.9 million to help over the next three months.