(Bishkek) Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan accused each other on Saturday of new violations of the ceasefire that came into effect the day before, after deadly armed clashes at several points on the border between these two Central Asian countries.
Updated yesterday at 11:27
In a press release, the Kyrgyz border guards said that the Tajik army had fired several times in the first part of the day, in particular with mortars, on border military positions in Kyrgyzstan.
These incidents took place in the Kyrgyz regions of Osh and Batken, in the south of the country.
Talks between representatives of the border guards of the two camps, however, took place in the Osh region during the day, according to Bishkek, who claims that this helped to end Tajik fire on three villages by midday.
The Tajik border guards also mentioned a meeting on Saturday between representatives of the two parties, in order to “discuss the stabilization of the situation” and the “withdrawal of forces” sent as reinforcements near the border in the face of tensions.
But Dushanbe also accused the Kyrgyz army of having fired twice in the morning on Tajik positions.
On Friday, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon held urgent talks on the sidelines of a regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan. They then agreed to a ceasefire.
On Saturday, Japarov said he would “not stop for a minute” in his efforts to settle the issue of border demarcation with Tajikistan “as soon as possible”, while promising that he would not give up ” not a single square meter of Kyrgyz land.
The latest assessment, on the Kyrgyz side, is 24 dead and 122 injured during the clashes, according to the Ministry of Health. The Kyrgyz authorities also mention tens of thousands of displaced people.
On Saturday morning, the Tajik Interior Ministry said civilians had been killed in Tajikistan during truce violations, without specifying the number.
Shooting between the two countries earlier this week had already caused the death of two Tajik border guards and injured several.
In the Batken region, the Kyrgyz authorities declared a state of emergency and the head of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan, Kamtchybek Tachiev, went there to “coordinate the resolution of the situation. »
The border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is the scene of regular fighting. Nearly half of the 970 kilometers of common border has been contested since the breakup of the USSR.
In April 2021, an eruption of violence left more than 50 people dead and raised fears of a larger-scale conflict.