HUNDREDS CROSS INTO KENYA TO ESCAPE ETHIOPIA AS REGIONAL FIGHTING ESCALATES

Fri 23 October 2026:

Hundreds of Ethiopians have crossed into Kenya, fleeing ⁠⁠fighting in ⁠⁠the border town of Moyale, which was reportedly prompted by loyalists publicly raising the flag of a neighbouring majority-Somali state.

Kenyan police said on Thursday that hundreds of Ethiopians, mostly women and children, crossed into Kenya through several entry points in Moyale, including the Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation and Miti areas.

The people who crossed the border were fleeing tensions between leaders of Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regional states, according to Kenyan police.

The police reported gunfire and chaotic scenes in Moyale.

Ethiopian media reported that the fighting in Moyale started as a dispute over raising the flag of the Somali Regional State, a regional state in eastern Ethiopia, on Sunday.

Tensions escalated into fighting between forces from the Oromia and Somali regions.

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Gunfire, chaos

The Kenya Red Cross said it was setting up temporary shelter and distributing essential items including cereal and porridge flour.

“The response will initially reach 1,000 households,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that experts were conducting an assessment to work out how many people were ⁠affected and what their needs were.

The regional clash is hundreds of kilometres away from ‌‌a larger conflict in the northern Tigray region between government forces and a rebel alliance led by the Tigray People’s ‌‌Liberation ‌‌Front.

Renewed fighting broke out in northern Ethiopia in late September 2026 between the federal government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), shattering the 2022 Pretoria Agreement that ended the devastating 2020–2022 Tigray War (which killed hundreds of thousands).

After months of tension, hardline TPLF forces reasserted control in Tigray earlier in 2026. On September 20, the TPLF joined six other armed groups (including Amhara Fano militias and Afar rebels) in the “Alliance for Survival,” aimed at toppling Abiy. On September 23, Tigrayan forces seized federally controlled airports in Mekelle, Axum, and Shire and launched offensives into Afar and Amhara, describing their actions as defensive responses to government drone and artillery strikes. Fighting spread across Tigray and neighboring regions.

Federal Ethiopian National Defense Forces, allied with a TPLF splinter group (the Tigray Peace Force), counterattacked. They retook key towns including Alamata and, by early October, the regional capital Mekelle with limited resistance. TPLF forces withdrew toward rural and mountainous areas, shifting toward guerrilla-style operations. Residual clashes, drone strikes, and attacks on supply lines have continued into mid-to-late October.

Civilian casualties have included dozens killed around Alamata; humanitarian access is strained amid existing displacement and food insecurity from the prior war. Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of supporting the TPLF and making limited incursions (which Eritrea denies), heightening risks of a wider Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict linked to Red Sea access issues. On October 16, Abiy established a six-month interim administration in Tigray to restore order and prepare for elections.

The situation remains fluid and dangerous, with fears of broader regional escalation.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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