DHAKA: Dozens of people have died in northern Kenya in a week of fierce clashes between rival ethnic groups, aid sources and reports said on Saturday.

The ongoing unrest, centred around the town of Moyale in Marsabit county on the frontier with Ethiopia, has seen villages burned down and many families forced to flee over the border.

According to the Standard newspaper, at least 27 people have been killed and thousands more displaced over the past week.

Kenyan peace and anti-tribalism campaigner Jaffer Isaak said he believed the toll was somewhere between 70 and 120 dead, while an independent international aid source, who asked not to be identified, said ‘many dozens’ had been killed.

Switzerland’s ambassador to Kenya, Jacques Pitteloud, said he was rallying other European envoys to join an effort to convene peace talks between the rival communities.

‘People are dying, people are being pushed over the border, villages burned, houses looted. It has to stop before it degenerates further, so it’s important to start peace efforts,’ Pitteloud told media, reports france24.com.

BDST: 1914 HRS, DEC 07, 2013