Media reports say ten people were killed and scores wounded in a series of clashes on February 7 in villages in Kazakhstan’s southern Zhambyl province, with homes and businesses torched.
Some 70 people were reportedly involved in the initial confrontation on the outskirts of Masanchi village, close to the border with Kyrgyzstan.
Violence spread to several nearby villages and crowds clashed with police, wounding two officers with gunshots, and torched dozens of buildings and cars. Police reportedly detained 47 people and confiscated two hunting shotguns.
The area is home to many members of the Dungan minority group, Muslims of ethnic Chinese origin who control many of the local businesses. It was unclear what sparked the clashes between groups of young male Dungans and ethnic Kazakhs, according to Reuters.
An eyewitness told Reuters he saw many Dungan families cross the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border on Saturday to be met by relatives on the Kyrgyz side.
“They meet those who cross the border and take them to their homes. It’s mostly women, children and the elderly,” said the man, who asked not to be named.
Radio Liberty’s Kazakh Service says more than 1,000 Kazakh nationals have crossed from Kyrgyzstan into neighboring Kazakhstan on February 9, following reports of inter-ethnic clashes that erupted two days earlier in a cluster of five villages of Kazakhstan from which many fled and entered the next-door country.
Kyrgyz officials told RFE/RL that after the ethnic violence erupted between Kazakhs and Dungans, a Muslim group of Chinese origin, in which 10 people died, border guards recorded approximately 4,500 entries from Kazakhstan.
Thirty-four Kazakhs were reportedly accepted into Kyrgyz hospitals on February 8-9, with 13 still receiving treatment. An additional five Kazakhs remained under medical and psychological observation and were reported to be in stable condition.
Another 39 were reported still hospitalized in Kazakhstan as of February 9, including three officials who sustained gunshot wounds.
Most of the Kazakhs who entered Kyrgyzstan were women, children, and seniors, Kyrgyz border guard service said.
Residents in the neighboring Kyrgyz villages reportedly greeted the fleeing Kazakhs with hot meals and offered shelter.
In an unscheduled televised appearance, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Tokayev said he had ordered security agencies to prosecute those spreading hate speech and “provocative rumors and disinformation.”
Kazakh law enforcement deployed riot police to the area on February 8, hours after the initial fighting.
By February 9, authorities said they believed around 300 people had taken part in the mob violence and they had already launched criminal cases, including for suspected murder.
On February 8, groups of mainly ethnic Dungans could be seen lining up along the Kyrgyz side of the border, while on the other side of the border, Dungan people handed out food and offered medical assistance to those coming across.
Footage circulating on social media late on February 7 showed young men, some armed with clubs, marching along the road of a village in the area with buildings on fire. Many of the videos could not be independently verified.
At a news conference in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbayev said 30 homes, 15 shops, and 20 cars had been damaged in Masanchi, and other villages in the region.
