AFP :
Kyrgyzstan said on Friday that 13 died and dozens of properties were burned during clashes with Central Asian rival Tajikistan, after a ceasefire agreed by the two countries hung in the balance following the heaviest fighting along their disputed border since post-Soviet independence.
Kyrgyzstan’s health ministry said in a statement that 134 people were injured, of whom 13 died. Two of the injured are in serious condition and a girl born in 2008 was among the casualties, it said.
The country’s national security committee said that three servicemen had died and 20 were injured.
Over 10,000 citizens had been evacuated from two districtsbordering Tajikistan where the fighting had been most intense, Kyrgyzstan also said.
The clashes that erupted along the border between the two poor, mountainous countries were the heaviest in years and had raised fears they might escalate into a wider conflict.
Local authorities in Kyrgyzstan’s southwestern Batken region said that shooting along the shared border was still happening “periodically” despite the ceasefire agreed on Thursday evening.
Military representatives of the two countries did not immediately confirm the information. More than a third of the two countries’ border is disputed, with the area surrounding the Tajik enclave of Vorukh, where Thursday’s conflict erupted, a regular flashpoint over territorial claims and access to water.
Tajikistan, a closed authoritarian state, has so far acknowledged no casualties and no damages from the clashes.
Kyrgyzstan, in contrast, published a detailed list of properties in its Batken region that had been damaged.
Among the properties burned down during the violence were a border post, more than 20 homes, a school, eight shops, and a casino, according to the emergencies ministry.
