400 people have died in clashes, says UN report

By Vincent Bartoo

NAIROBI;KENYA: A United Nations report says 412 people have been killed in Kenya this year over rising clashes.

The report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 258 people have been injured and another 112,000 displaced.

Titled, Kenya: 2012 Inter-Communal Conflict by District, the report says the clashes were either due to communal fights or over limited resources and politics.

The data was collected until Thursday.

“This month (November) has seen a rise in localised clashes as a result of competition over land resources and the ongoing process of political devolution,” the report says.

Districts in Eastern, North Eastern, Rift Valley and Coast regions were highlighted as the most affected.

“(This is) where cattle rustling is common and competition over scarce resources is high,” added the report.

Tana River leads with 116 people reported killed followed by clashes along the Turkana/West Pokot border that left 82 dead and Samburu were 67 people lost their lives.

Moyale had the highest number of those displaced standing at 50,592 followed by Tana River (30,000) and Isiolo (9,575).

The report is part of an Eastern African audit on displacement of people mainly as a result of internal armed conflicts and insecurity.

By October this year, the report says, 8.52 million people had been displaced in Burundi, Eastern DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

“Of these, 2,041,675 are refugees and 6,473,635 are internally IDPs,” added the report. Kenya and Uganda were, however, lauded for steps taken in the protection and resettlement of IDPs.