Around 50,000 flee into Kenya as Ethiopian regional forces clash near Moyale

UNHCR raised its estimate on Wednesday, 28 October, from 36,000 a day earlier, citing local authorities. It called the figure provisional because registration continues and new crossings are still being recorded. The fighting between the armed forces of Ethiopia's Somali and Oromia regions began on 20 October, after a Somali regional flag was hoisted in Moyale, a town the two regions administer jointly. Sources told AFP on Saturday that several people had died. Many of those fleeing are women and children, said UNHCR's Kenya representative Fatima Mohammed-Cole; some stay with relatives and host communities, others in schools and churches. UNHCR has sent an emergency team to Moyale and works with the Kenyan government and the Kenyan Red Cross. It is supplying household items and shelter material for nearly 12,000 people and looking for safer accommodation away from the border.