MOYALE/NAIROBI — Ethiopia and Kenya have commenced a series of phased, joint military operations along their shared border to secure the strategic Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor against a surge in cross-border crime and ethnic skirmishes.
The agreement, finalized at a high-level defense summit in Addis Ababa, marks the most significant operationalization of the 2024 Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA). The Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) have deployed specialized units to the Moyale–Marsabit–Turkana corridor, a region historically plagued by resource-based conflicts over water and pasture.
The LAPSSET project, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure initiative intended to link the Kenyan coast to landlocked Ethiopia and South Sudan, has faced persistent security delays. Military officials stated that the joint patrols aim to dismantle “transboundary criminal networks” and protect oil pipelines and road networks currently under construction.
“This is a shift from purely diplomatic cooperation to actionable security synergy,” said a senior Kenyan defense official who requested anonymity. “The corridor is the heartbeat of regional integration, but it cannot function if our pastoralist communities are in a state of perpetual conflict.”
The move comes amid heightened tensions in the Ilemi Triangle, where recent clashes between Kenya’s Turkana and Ethiopia’s Dassanech communities have led to dozens of casualties.
While the military intervention aims to stabilize the area, human rights groups have cautioned that increased militarization must be accompanied by community-led peace dialogues to address the root causes of resource scarcity.
