Ethiopia, Kenya border security meeting underway

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

May 31, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – Kenyan and Ethiopian officials are holding a consultation meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on their common security concerns and other related social issues along their shared border.

The consultation meeting will be followed by a high level ministerial meeting in the coming days which aims to find ways of ending hostilities among border communities and set a strategic security measure for a lasting solution to both people living on the common border.

In early May, Shimels Kemal, spokesman for the Communications Ministry of Ethiopia told Sudan Tribune that clashes along shared border between Turkana herdsmen and Ethiopia’s Merille community killed 34 people.

There were fears of reprisal attacks but the security and military forces from both Kenya and Ethiopia say they took control of the area before the incident turned into a full scale confrontation.

Border security has remained in tight since the fighting until peace and reconciliation efforts were initiated by both governments in a bid to defuse tensions.

Ministers from Kenya are expected to arrive in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to discuss with their Ethiopian counterparts who the border communities can peacefully co-exist. Essential to this will be allocation and utilization of the areas resources, such as pasture and fertile fishing grounds, which are mainly, blamed being the primary source of conflict.

Tribal clashes along the Ethiopian-Kenyan border are common however the latest fighting has been of a larger scale than pervious conflicts. The fighting caused an outcry in Kenya, with parliamentarians accusing the government of doing little to protect vulnerable people at the border.

Last Tuesday, on the sidelines of the second India-Africa summit, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki held talks on the border concerns and ways of preventing future disputes between the communities and harmonize their co-existence.

On daily bases it is thought several Kenyan members of the Turkana tribe cross the border to Ethiopia to purchase food from Merrile villagers and sometimes misunderstandings between the two sides lead to deadly clashes.

Following the recent fighting, the Kenyan government has begun distributing food to Turkana villagers to deter them from moving to the Ethiopian side of the border in search of food.

(ST)