The government of Ethiopia’s Somali region on Tuesday accused militia from the neighboring Afar region of killing hundreds of civilians in an attack.

The Somali regional government’s spokesperson Ali Bedel told Reuters that an armed militia from the Afar region carried out a “massacre” on Saturday in an area known as both Gedamaytu and Gabraiisa.

The area is one of several contested ones along the border between the Somali and Afar regions.

Two senior officials from the Somali government also confirmed the attack, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

They did not give a specific casualty toll.

Afar regional government spokesperson Ahmed Koloyta did not immediately respond to comment requests.

One official said the government had dispatched health officials to the area to help the “high number” of injured people.

The bloodshed in territory claimed by the Somali and Afar regions highlights security woes facing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that extend well beyond the ongoing conflict farther north in Tigray.

Ali Bedel, a spokesman for the Somali region, said 25 people had been killed on Friday and an “unknown number of civilians” died in a subsequent attack by the same forces on Tuesday.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the 25 deaths claimed by the Somali official were in addition to the 100 deaths or included in that figure.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Kaloyte of the Afar region, told the AFP news agency that Somali special police and militias raided an area known as Haruka, “indiscriminately firing on locals and killing more than 30 Afar civilian pastoralists” and injuring at least 50 more

“The local community then beat back the attackers and caught some of them red-handed,” temporarily restoring order, he said.

Both sides deny having initiated the attacks and blame the other for the violence.

Clashes along the border predate the six-month-old conflict in the north that has pitted the federal government against the former ruling party in the Tigray region.

Yet the violence has intensified just as Prime Minister Abiy’s government is trying to assert control over Tigray – underscoring how the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner is struggling to keep the country together ahead of the general election in June.

The election was originally set in August 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It is regarded as a litmus test for the country’s fragile unity, challenged by many newly resurgent regional and ethnically based parties.

“The Somali region special forces … attacked the areas of Haruk and Gewane using heavy weapons including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Children and women were killed while they were sleeping,” Ahmed said.