Nearly 40,000 flee Ethiopia clashes into Kenya’s Moyale

Nearly 40,000 people have fled deadly clashes in southern Ethiopia into the Kenyan border town of Moyale, Kenya’s national human rights commission said on Oct. 27, 2026, almost triple the figure the Kenya Red Cross reported over the weekend.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said more than 15,000 of the arrivals are in eight temporary shelters, including churches and schools, while more than 20,000 are staying with relatives and friends. The Kenya Red Cross had counted more than 14,000 displaced people, Anadolu Agency reported.

“The protection of life and human dignity cannot be postponed,” KNCHR chairperson Claris Ogangah said. The commission warned that overcrowding in host communities already short of food, clean water, shelter, sanitation and health care could spread disease. Two women gave birth in the shelters at Manyatta Burji and two more at Bitiye, according to the commission.

The fighting involves regional security forces and armed civilians from Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regions, particularly the Oromo Borana and Somali Garre communities near Moyale, which straddles the border. Anadolu reported that the violence followed a dispute over raising the Somali Regional State flag and opening an office in an area Oromia claims. A 13-year-old girl was killed on Oct. 18, and heavy fighting broke out on Oct. 22.

Reuters reported on Oct. 22 that hundreds of Ethiopians had crossed into Kenya after fighting began in Moyale on Oct. 21. Stanley Kamande, the commissioner of Kenya’s Marsabit County, said the arrivals were mainly women and children, many staying with relatives in villages on the Kenyan side. A Kenya Red Cross official said at the time that no camp was ready to host the displaced.

Africanews reported that gunfire was heard on the Ethiopian side from about 5:50 a.m. on Oct. 22 and that people crossed at several points, including Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation and Miti. A woman was shot in the neck in Moyale and was in stable condition after a bullet was removed, the outlet reported. Kenyan police said they did not know the source of the bullets. The Kenya Red Cross said its response would initially reach 1,000 households.

Transport and trade along the Kenya-Ethiopia border have been disrupted, and lawmakers from Marsabit County have asked President William Ruto to engage Ethiopian authorities diplomatically, Anadolu reported.

For Canadians, the government’s travel advisory for Ethiopia, last updated Oct. 14, tells travellers to avoid non-essential travel to the country and to avoid all travel within 20 kilometres of the Kenyan border, noting that inter-ethnic conflict and banditry are common there, including near Moyale. Canadians with relatives in the area, including members of the Ethiopian and Kenyan communities in Canada, can check the Global Affairs Canada advisory for updates.

The Moyale crisis comes as Ethiopia faces other violence in Oromia. Canada News Media reported on Oct. 27 that more than 60 Orthodox Christians were killed in the region. Kenya is also managing an Ebola outbreak, as Canada News Media has reported, which adds to pressure on its health services.

Neither Ethiopian federal nor regional officials have given a public account of the death toll in Moyale, and the cause of the dispute has not been independently confirmed.

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