{"id":838259,"date":"2026-10-24T21:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=838259"},"modified":"2026-10-24T21:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:10:00","slug":"moyale-fighting-has-killed-at-least-nine-and-driven-2500-into-kenya-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/838259","title":{"rendered":"Moyale fighting has killed at least nine and driven 2,500 into Kenya, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A man who fled the fighting in Moyale speaks to Butiye Online TV after crossing into Kenya, October 24, 2026. Photo: Butiye Online TV, shared by Addis Standard via X<\/em><\/p>\n

Fighting between Oromia and Somali regional forces in Moyale has killed at least nine people and pushed at least 2,500 into Kenya, officials said, as residents described much of the border town burning.<\/p>\n

A hospital official in Moyale told Reuters that about 30 wounded people had been brought in over several days, four of whom died on Thursday and five on Friday, most of them hit by what the official called heavy weapons. On the Kenyan side, Marsabit County Commissioner Stanley Kamande put the number of people who have crossed and are staying in Kenyan Moyale at no fewer than 2,500. People who fled, speaking in a video report by Butiye Online TV that Addis Standard shared on Saturday morning, believe the real figure could be as high as 10,000, most of them women and children. None of these figures can be independently confirmed.<\/p>\n

Three residents who spoke to BBC Amharic on Friday evening said the shooting had started again before dawn, after a night of firing, and that it was heavier than the day before. "There are no shops left in the town," one of them said. "What was broken is broken, what was destroyed is destroyed, and the fire has now burned half of the town." Another said hotels and restaurants had been set alight and that trucks belonging to import and export companies were being hit on the road and left standing on the asphalt. "Their houses are burning, their shops are burning, everyone is on the run," he said.<\/p>\n

A resident who described himself to DW Amharic as an eyewitness said he had seen at least ten people killed on both sides, and that the exchange of fire that began at 6 a.m. on Thursday at Damuq, on the boundary between the two regions, was still going on near the entrance to the Garre Somali neighborhoods while he was speaking. An elder who asked not to be named told DW that the education and water offices and a fuel station had been struck by heavy weapons. Elders had stood between the two sides for seven days asking them to lower their guns, he said, and nobody listened. "Moyale is burning," he said.<\/p>\n

Images that Reuters verified showed a bulldozer on fire at a petrol station and people pulling down fuel pumps. Residents told DW the fighting had also spread from the town into rural kebeles on both sides of the regional line.<\/p>\n

The dispute began on Sunday, October 18, when the Somali region's flag was raised over an office it had built on ground that both regions claim. A 13-year-old girl was killed in the quarrel that followed, according to DW, and tension held through Monday to Wednesday before it turned into open fighting. A source with a humanitarian organization that works on both sides of the border told Kenya's The Standard that people on the Oromia side saw the flag as "an encroachment on their land."<\/p>\n

On X, each side is telling a different story. Dirre Online shared videos on Saturday that it said showed Oromia Special Forces firing artillery at hotels in the market area and a mass deployment of those forces with heavy weapons, and posted an interview in which a Somali man in Moyale called the attacks genocide. From the other side, Alex Elema wrote that Somali Special Forces and Al-Shabaab fighters had taken positions on rooftops across the town with machine guns and snipers aimed at Borana Oromo civilians. Mereja could not verify any of these claims.<\/p>\n

Neither regional government nor the federal Gov't has made a public statement on the deaths. DW said repeated calls and text messages to the mayor and to the communication offices of the two regions and the federal Gov't went unanswered, and BBC Amharic said it could not get comment from regional or federal officials. Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service to confirm the death toll and say what is being done to stop the fighting, and will update this story with any response.<\/p>\n

In Kenya, a Kenya Army detachment has joined the General Service Unit and border police at the Moyale crossing, and the Kenya Red Cross is handing out tents, blankets, jerrycans and cooking sets to families who fled, The Standard and BBC Amharic reported.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n