Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan Hold New Talks After Shooting At Border Leaves One Dead

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have held talks after an exchange of gunfire killed one person and wounded another near a disputed segment of the border between the Central Asian neighbors.

Officials from Kyrgyzstan's Batken district and Tajikistan's Sughd region held talks on March 10 after border guards from the two sides exchanged fire earlier in the day.

The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service said the incident happened after Tajik border guards moved into a disputed area and demanded Kyrgyz guards leave.

The service told RFE/RL that the sides agreed at the talks to investigate the incident separately. There were no casualties among the Kyrgyz border guards.

There has been no official statement from the Tajik side on the situation, but local residents near the site where the incident took place told RFE/RL that one Tajik border guard was killed and one civilian was wounded in the exchange of gunfire.

A local hospital worker told RFE/RL that there were casualties from the shooting but did not provide details.

The incident took place less than two months after clashes erupted along a segment of the two countries' poorly demarcated border in a standoff over a blocked road in late January.

Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security said at the time that two civilians were killed and 10 people wounded, including six security personnel and four civilians.

Kyrgyz authorities said 12 Kyrgyz were seriously wounded and more than 24,200 Kyrgyz were evacuated from the area of the fighting.

Almost half of the 970-kilometer-long Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, leading to frequent tension since the two countries gained independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.

Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan meet.

In April 2021, clashes that involved military personnel along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border left dozens of people dead on both sides.