By AFPMore by this AuthorADDIS ABABAClashes between two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups have forced around one million people to leave their homes, according to a UN report seen by AFP. Fighting between the Oromo and Somali peoples along the shared border between their two states occurred sporadically through 2017 but the situation intensified in September, leaving hundreds of people dead by a government estimate and displacing scores of others trying to flee the violence. CONFLICTStatistics from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) show that the conflict-related displacement is more widespread than previously known and one of the biggest seen by Ethiopia in recent years. In 2017 alone, 700,000 people were displaced with the IOM recording a "significant spike" in September of that year. ETHNICITYEthiopia is divided into ethnically demarcated federal states intended to give the country's many ethnic groups self-determination.

Source: Daily Nation February 06, 2018 04:41 UTC