Kenyan forces detain 63 in operation against Ethiopia separatists

NAIROBI, June 18 (AFP) — Kenyan armed forces have arrested at least 63 people in an operation to flush out members of Ethiopian separatist movement, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), in the northern part of the country, police said on Friday.

“In total (at least) 63 people, either Kenyans or Ethiopians were arrested this week in this joint army-police operation in northeastern province to search for OLF members,” police spokesman Jasper Ombati told AFP by phone.

“Fifteen of the detainees said they were trained in Eritrea in order to fight alongside OLF, about 10 were in Kenya illegally and the rest are Kenyans who are either OLF sympathisers or have failed to register as Kenyan nationals,” Ombati said.

Ammunition, anti-tank landmines, and 14 fuses used to detonate mines were also recovered in the raids, he added.

Residents in the northern part of the east African nation, which borders Somalia, have been complaining of frequent harrassment by OLF members.

The Addis Ababa government has been fighting the OLF, a rebel group active in southern Ethiopia, since 1996, when the group quit a transitional coalition administration and began pushing for the creation of an independent state of Oromia.