Women displaced by fighting in Ethiopia’s Moyale carry food aid at one of four displacement sites in Moyale, Marsabit County, Kenya, in a photo released by World Vision Kenya on November 10, 2026. Credit: World Vision Kenya.
Kenya’s foreign minister says he has asked Ethiopia to calm the fighting in Moyale, as aid groups in Marsabit County count between 36,000 and 50,000 people who have fled across the border.
Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that about 40,000 people displaced by the unrest were being hosted in schools, churches and camps in Moyale, on the Kenyan side of the divided town. He told reporters that Kenya was in contact with the Ethiopian government and that talks to end the fighting were underway.
Mudavadi said he had spoken with Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Gedion Timotheos, and urged Addis Ababa to step in, restore stability and make it possible for people to go home, Wazema Radio reported. According to Mudavadi, the Ethiopian government assured Nairobi that it would do everything it could to restore normalcy. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry had not published its own account of the call by Tuesday evening.
The fighting is between the regional forces and militias of Oromia and of the Somali region, who have long disputed the boundary and the administration of Moyale, a busy commercial town on the main road between Addis Ababa and Nairobi. It broke out about three weeks ago. Residents told Wazema that fighting continued this week in the Chamuq, Melab, 01 and 02 neighborhoods of the town, and that federal security forces had not been deployed there as of Monday.
Aid groups give different counts of the people who have crossed. World Vision Kenya said on Tuesday that the fighting had displaced 35,950 people into Moyale, including 20,850 children. It said it was giving emergency food and kitchen sets to 1,300 households at four displacement sites and had handed out 27.11 metric tonnes of food so far. The group said it had committed $100,000 toward a $500,000 response, leaving a gap of $400,000.
Khalsa Aid, a charity that is funding hot meals with the Kenya Red Cross, put the number at more than 50,000. A regional head of the Kenya Red Cross gave Al Jazeera a similar figure of more than 50,000, up from about 36,000 earlier, according to posts summarizing the interview.
The International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday that people sheltering in Moyale faced shortages of food, clean water and shelter, and called with partners for urgent funding, according to a UN News report. Earlier, the United Nations allocated $3 million to support the response in northern Kenya, Somali Report and other outlets reported.
Stray bullets from the fighting have also hit the Kenyan side of the town. Britain cited those shootings when it warned its citizens against travel to Moyale. By Tuesday evening, Mereja Media had not found any public statement from Ethiopia’s federal government on what it plans to do in Moyale.
The crisis in Moyale comes in the same week that Mereja Media reported attacks that killed dozens in Arsi and in Benishangul this week.
Sources
- Wazema Radio, Kenya Seeks Ethiopian Intervention as Moyale Clashes Displace More Than 40,000 People, Nov 9
- The Star Kenya on X, Mudavadi, Nov 9
- Hivi Sasa on X, Mudavadi on schools, churches and camps, Nov 9
- Citizen TV Kenya on X, talks to end fighting underway, Nov 9
- World Vision Kenya (@WorldVisionKE) on X, Nov 10
- Khalsa Aid on X, Nov 9
- Post quoting UN News on IOM funding appeal, Nov 10
- Somali Report on X, UN allocates $3 million, Nov 9
- Mereja Media, Britain warns against travel to Kenya’s Moyale
- Mereja Media, Attacks kill dozens in Benishangul and Arsi