Two abducted in Ethiopian incursion into northern Kenya
April 27, 2006 (NAIROBI) — A soldier was injured during heavy fighting between Kenyan soldiers and Ethiopian forces in Moyale District, the police said yesterday.
About 60 Ethiopian soldiers crossed the border and invaded Odda village, about five kilometres from Moyale. They are said to have abducted two people.
A statement signed by Gideon Kibunjah on behalf of police commissioner Hussein Ali, said the Kenyan forces intercepted the Ethiopian soldiers at Somare area as the raiders attempted to attack Atesa manyatta.
The Ethiopians, who were pursuing suspected Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) fighters, first attacked Somare village on Monday 24 April. Somare is less than a kilometre from the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
Villagers reported the attack at the Moyale police station and a combined force of regular, administration Police and military officers was alerted.
Yesterday morning, the Ethiopian soldiers crossed into Kenya again, allegedly to abduct more Kenyans whom they believed to have been harbouring OLF militiamen. But Kenyan soldiers were waiting for them and engaged them in fierce fighting in which some Ethiopians were reportedly killed.
The injured Kenyan soldier was identified as constable Abdi Yusuf. No civilian was injured. It was not possible to confirm the number of Ethiopian casualties as the attackers were surrounded by Kenyan forces who were under orders not to kill them as a surrender was being negotiated.
In the early afternoon, after the Ethiopians were surrounded by the Kenyan forces, a team of administrators from Ethiopia arrived in the town to seek their release.
Even as the negotiations continued, more Ethiopian soldiers were gathered at the border, an Immigration official at the Moyale border post said on condition of anonymity.
“Our security forces remain deployed in the Somare and Atesa areas to prevent further crime,” Kibunjah said in a statement to the Nation.
Since the early 1990s, wars fought in Ethiopia have always spilled over to Kenya. The protagonists are the Ethiopian security forces and members of OLF, a guerrilla movement that has been fighting the government since the overthrow of Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. Often, after the OLF rebels attack the army, they seek refuge in Kenya. The Ethiopian forces usually cross the border in pursuit of the rebels, with Kenyans being caught in the crossfire.
(Nation/ST)