100,000 flee violence in Kenya as tribal conflict over land worsens

The scenic slopes of Mount Elgon belie Kenya's hidden crisis. Aid agencies believe more than 100,000 people have been displaced – the vast majority of the population of the mountain's Chepyuk area – by a slow-burning conflict that has intensified in recent weeks.

They are Kenya's ghost villages, where only the most vulnerable remain. Many huts have been burnt to the ground and others abandoned in haste with cooking pots still lying on long-cold embers. Near by, fields full of maize lie untended, the much-needed harvest left to rot. At least 250 people have been killed, countless women have been raped and dozens of civilians have been disfigured. In one incident 13 people had their ears chopped off.

Remi Carrier, the head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières, the only international aid agency currently working in the area, said the situation had deteriorated "below human dignity". He said: "People are suffering and their human needs are not being met."

The clashes were sparked by a controversial resettlement scheme in August 2006 when 3,000 families were granted land in the Chepyuk area of the Mount Elgon region. It caused the displacement of thousands of families who had been squatting in the area. Many of those displaced were from the Soy tribe, a farming clan, while most of the beneficiaries were Ndorobo, a traditional pastoralist clan.

An armed group, calling itself the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF), mainly made up of young Soy men, began carrying out attacks, burning down homes and attacking those given land. The SLDF claims that local politicians favoured one tribe over another in the land distribution.

After months of conflict the government sent a special police unit to Mount Elgon at the beginning of the year. But rather than quell the violence, people say it has increased. Civilians now find themselves caught between two armed groups – the SLDF and the police. Criminals are also trying to profit from the chaos.

"The situation is getting worse," said Ahmed Abdi of the Kenya Red Cross. "Houses are being torched by the SLDF, while some civilians say they are being harassed by the police." A dusk-to-dawn curfew is now in place across the area.

People have been fleeing their villages, searching for safety further up Mount Elgon or in the nearby forest. Temperatures in the highlands of the mountain, an extinct volcano, are low and can drop significantly at night, putting displaced people at risk.

The clashes have had a devastating effect with malnutrition rife. More than 9,600 hectares of land, which could produce almost 200,000 bags of maize, have not been cultivated. More than 30,000 livestock have been lost – either killed or stolen. Children's education has also been disrupted. Some teachers have been killed, while others have sought transfers to more stable areas, and thousands of pupils have been displaced.

The violence has also prevented most of those who were awarded land from taking it up.

"Chepyuk is deserted," said Mr Abdi. "Because of the violence, everyone left. The people were scared." Few are prepared to talk openly about the violence. "People are afraid and run away," one young woman in told aid workers. "They beat everyone, even the young kids they beat.

"They beat you with sticks. They slap you. They take your money from you and they kick you.

"Sometimes they do bad things to women. So people hide in the bush or in the maize fields. Sometimes, people stay there for one month." Another man who fled his home said: "I moved because people were fighting. People were being slaughtered. I had death threats. Our belongings were taken out of our houses. Houses were being burnt. We could not stay there. My mother and my brother were killed. They were together taking vegetables and they got killed. They were just going up to get some vegetables and were attacked on the way."

Médecins Sans Frontières has sounded the alarm, warning that it and the Red Cross cannot deal with the problem on their own. "It is therefore of utmost importance that actors who have the mandate and the responsibility to protect these civilians step in and focus their attention to the plight of this population," Mr Carrier said.

Battleground is mountain famed for its caves

* Mount Elgon, an extinct but impressively craggy volcano, straddles the border between Kenya and Uganda, about 300 miles from Nairobi. It is Kenya's second highest mountain, with the Koitoboss peak rising to 4,155 metres.

* The mountain is named after the Elgonyi tribe who once lived in large caves on its slopes, but the Massai know it as "Ol Doinyo Ilgoon" or "Breast Mountain". The Teso people would cast objects upon the red earth of the volcano to predict the future, while the Saboat tribes used the mountainside to grow food and graze cattle, storing their grain and livestock in the caves.

* The mountain's caves, of which the most famous is Kitum, attract scores of visitors. Tourists come to marvel at the tribal drawings etched on to the caves walls, but animals come for an entirely different reason. Each night, herds of elephants make their way along well-worn paths, worn by generations of their predecessors, inside the mountain and into the caves. They use their tusks to scrape at the cave walls and then extract the natural salt which they then lick. In this unique way, the caves are made deeper and deeper.

* The Mount Elgon caves may have served as the original inspiration for the Victorian adventure writer H Rider Haggard's novel, King Solomon's Mines, written in 1885, which centres around the search for a fabulous treasure trove, hidden in caves inside a mountain.

* Kitum itself is notorious for its link to the Marburg virus. In the 1980s, two Europeans contracted the disease, which is similar to Ebola, and died after visiting the cave.