Fighting in southern Ethiopia has caused about 50,000 people to flee across the border into Kenya since fighting broke out last week, the United Nations said Wednesday, citing local authorities. The figure represents a sharp jump from the 36,000 recorded on Tuesday by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, following clashes between armies in the Somali and Oromia regions of southern Ethiopia. “According to local authorities, it is estimated that up to 50,000 people have crossed into Kenya,” said Fatima Mohammed-Cole, UNHCR representative in Kenya. See moreEthiopia-Eritrea: Is there a risk of a broader conflict? That figure could change quickly given the situation on the ground, with new crossings recorded, Mohammed-Cole warned. The unrest broke out on October 20 after a Somali regional flag was raised in Moyale, a jointly administered city between Somalia and Oromia. Several people died in the clashes, sources told AFP on Saturday. Many of those who fled were women and children, Mohammed-Cole said. “While some are staying with family and host communities, others have sought refuge in temporary places such as schools and churches,” he added. UNHCR has sent an emergency team to the region and is working with the Kenyan government, along with other humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, to provide aid to the displaced. Read moreEthiopian government forces enter the key city of Tigray, near the border with Eritrea. Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with some 130 million inhabitants, is the scene of several armed conflicts in its vast territory. The border areas of its different regions, traced back to 1991, are often a source of clashes. Diplomatic disagreements with neighboring Eritrea have also raised fears of another conflict between the fractious Horn of Africa neighbors. Ethiopian forces have advanced towards the Eritrean border in recent weeks. Those fears intensified during Wednesday’s Russia-Africa summit in Moscow after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that Ethiopia had received 12 Russian fighter jets. “Ethiopia will also receive four S-400 air defense system batteries,” Ahmed added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that “we are interested in Ethiopia and Eritrea normalizing their relations.” For several years, the Ethiopian government has been engaged in a conflict with rebel movements in the Oromia and Amhara regions, the most populated in the country. After months of tensions, clashes have also broken out again in the northern region of Tigray, which was already the scene of a devastating war from 2020 to 2022. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)