Drought is leading to conflict
2006-02-06 09:26
Nairobi - Drought and food shortages in north Kenya are provoking clashes between nomadic tribes, with dozens already killed and violence set to spread unless more relief reaches them, an aid agency warned on Monday.
"The knock-on impact of the crisis risks sparking conflict on a scale that Kenya hasn't seen for almost a decade," said Gezahegn Kebede, head of Oxfam in Kenya.
Kenya is one of the worst-affected countries from a drought afflicting East Africa since late 2005. Scores of people and tens of thousands of livestock have died from starvation and related diseases in the arid northern regions.
Growing conflict
But Oxfam said the death toll from the drought was also swelling from an upsurge in fighting between nomadic cattle-herders over scant water and grazing resources.
"It's not just the food crisis that is claiming lives in Kenya ... Unless aid to the affected area is stepped up this month, March could see many more killed," Kebede added.
In the worst recent incident, fighting between Kenya's Turkana tribe and groups from neighbouring Ethiopia killed 40 people last month, the British-based aid agency said.
In other cases, clashes between the Turkana and Karamajong tribes near the border with Uganda have led to the burning of pastures, while a recent raid in Isiolo left nine people dead.
And in Lomelo, three tribes - the Samburu, Pokot and Turkana - were sharing pasture and water in a tense situation where "fighting could break out at any time," Oxfam said.
"The number of weapons in the area is making such encounters increasingly lethal as nomadic communities now have to travel hundreds of kilometres in search of pasture - often taking them into areas controlled by other communities," Oxfam said.
"There is also growing conflict between farmers and cattle herders as livestock invade farms."
The Kenyan government, criticised by many for a late response to the crisis, says about four million of its 32 million people are facing food shortages.
Hussein Yussuf, of the Isiolo Peace Committee - a community group trying to reduce tensions in the area - told Reuters tensions were being exacerbated by a cross-border flow of arms from "unstable countries" like Somalia and Ethiopia.
Also, the ever-further migration in search of resources was breaking down tribal structures, sending young people far from elders.
Oxfam said the remote north had long been neglected and needed long-term help, particularly more boreholes.
"We now have a very small window in which to stop this crisis turning into a catastrophe," Kebede added. "The implications of failing to step up the aid effort now will not just be starvation, it could also bring large scale conflict."
Oxfam said it was helping more than 200 000 people with food and water in the Turkana and Wajir regions.