Rival Kenyan tribes clash again over land

FOUR people were killed in renewed violence between rival tribes in Kenya's coastal Tana Delta region on Tuesday despite a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the government, the Red Cross said.

Houses had been torched and many people were fleeing the clashes, the Red Cross said in a statement.

More than 100 people have been shot, hacked to death and burnt alive during three weeks of violence rooted in disputes over land and water between the Pokomo and Orma.

Hundreds of attackers had regrouped on Tuesday and launched new attacks, the Red Cross said.

"The humanitarian situation is becoming more and more dire," it said.

Four people had been killed on Tuesday, the head of the Red Cross in Coast Province, Mwanaisha Hamisi, told Reuters.

"There could be more but we will know when the situation gets better. Right now it's too dangerous and we have advised our people to keep off for a while," Hamisi told Reuters.

President Mwai Kibaki on Monday imposed a curfew and sent extra security forces to the area.

Settled Pokomo farmers and semi-nomadic Orma pastoralists have clashed intermittently for years over access to grazing, farmland and water. The violence broke out again last month after the Pokomo accused the pastoralists of grazing cattle on their land and massacred more than 50 Orma villagers.

Reuters