The Library Media — National & World · World Desk
Eight Somali Civilians Killed in Militia Attack in Southern Ethiopia as Border Violence Escalates
By Maya Wilson
Photo: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
At least eight Somali civilians, including women and children, were killed early Saturday, November 14, when gunmen attacked a pastoralist settlement in the Malkamari area of Mubaarak District in Ethiopia’s Dawa Zone, in southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border.
Local reports say the attackers descended on the settlement while residents were asleep and opened fire. Local authorities attributed the killings to an armed Oromo militia. No individual victims have been named, and no injuries from this specific attack have been reported.
The circumstances of the attack could not be independently verified, Anadolu Agency reported.
A new and deadlier incident
The attack is the latest in weeks of fighting between ethnic Oromo and Somali communities in southern Ethiopia, where clashes have spread across several areas along the disputed regional boundary.
It is the same southern-Ethiopia violence The Library Media reported this morning, when stray bullets from fighting across the border killed two people in Kenya. Saturday’s attack in Malkamari is a new and deadlier incident, not the same event.
Residents in Kenya’s northern border town of Moyale reported hearing heavy gunfire and explosions overnight as fighting intensified on the Ethiopian side. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the clashes, but their authenticity could not be independently established.
Border communities under strain
Marsabit Governor Mohamud Ali said Friday that two Kenyans had been killed by stray bullets and 22 others injured in the fighting in neighbouring Ethiopia, and that approximately 10,000 residents had been displaced. He also said more than 50,000 Ethiopians had crossed into Kenya seeking refuge, placing additional pressure on communities already struggling with limited humanitarian resources.
The violence follows weeks of fighting that has displaced thousands of civilians and disrupted trade, education and essential services along the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
The attack on Saturday adds to the toll in a border region where communities on both sides have already been affected by weeks of clashes, displacement and disruption to daily life.
The circumstances of the attack could not be independently verified.
Maya Wilson
World Desk Lead, The Library Media
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