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Kenya: Thousands displaced in ethnic clashes in southwest Print E-mail
Written by IRIN   
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Tension remains high in Kenya's southwestern district of Kuria East, on the Tanzania border, where at least 6,000 people have been displaced by inter-clan fighting, humanitarian officials said.

"Although there is relative calm in the district, with no reported incidences of attacks or torching of houses in the past few days, tension remains high in the area," James Kisia, deputy secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), said on 24 June.

Fighting between the Nyabasi and Buirege clans of the Kuria ethnic community began in late May following a cattle-rustling incident in which two people were killed. A retaliation attack that followed resulted in the death of two other people and the torching of several homes.

The Kuria are a pastoralist Bantu people, with a history of clan fighting over resources such as land, pasture and cattle.

Political differences arising from the division of the larger Kuria district in 2007 into Kuria East and Kuria West districts also underpin the latest conflict, Kisia said, with both clans wanting the new district headquarters situated in their divisions.

Aid efforts

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya), relief agencies are planning further aid for the IDPs in Kuria East. Already, the KRCS has provided emergency relief aid for the displaced.

OCHA said it was supporting coordination efforts at the national level through gathering and sharing of information on the immediate gaps in humanitarian response in the affected district.

A KRCS assessment revealed that both clans mobilised support from their neighbouring communities and relatives from the Kenya-Tanzania border area, during the clashes.
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 June 2009 )