death toll rises to 36

This Sunday morning, the Kyrgyz border guards nevertheless indicated that the night had passed « calmly, without incident », while noting that the situation remained « tense » at the border in the Kyrgyz regions of Osh and Batken. « The leaders of the two countries are taking all the necessary measures to stabilize the situation, stop all escalations and provocations (…) in a peaceful way », indicated this Sunday the Kyrgyz border guards.

Civilians killed

On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called officials from both sides by phone « to foster dialogue for a lasting ceasefire », a UN spokesman said.

On the same day, the Tajik Interior Ministry reported that civilians had been killed in Tajikistan during truce violations, without specifying the number since. Shooting between the two countries earlier this week had already caused the death of two Tajik border guards and injured.

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, against a backdrop of tensions over access to resources. In April 2021, an eruption of violence left more than 50 people dead and raised fears of a larger-scale conflict.