Kyrgyzstan's Border Guard Service says some guards have been withdrawn from an area along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border where shooting broke out on April 12 and talks have begun to de-escalate the situation.
The service reported late on April 12 that the situation was relatively stable as the head of the border service in Batken Oblast, Kiyalbek Tolonbaev, and the head of Tajikistan's Sughd branch of the border service, Hikmatullo Pirakov, held talks at the Ovchi-Kalacha checkpoint in Tajikistan.
Two shootings occurred earlier on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. According to Kyrgyz officials, the first was a shoot-out between Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards near the village of Maksat in Leilek district, and a Tajik border guard was reportedly wounded.
It was later reported that Tajik border guards, who arrived during the talks, opened fire. A Kyrgyz border guard was wounded in the shoot-out, which lasted 30 minutes. His condition is reported to be critical.
A 27-year-old Tajik soldier was wounded and was operated on, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports, citing unidentified sources.
The Tajik side reportedly fired mortars at the village of Dostuk in Kyrgyzstan.
Tajik officials have not confirmed the clashes, which took place just weeks after border guards from the two sides exchanged fire on March 10. No casualties were reported then.
In late January, clashes erupted along a segment of the two countries' poorly demarcated border in a standoff over a blocked road.
Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security said at the time that two civilians were killed and 10 other people -- six security force members and four civilians – were wounded.
Kyrgyz authorities said 12 Kyrgyz nationals were seriously wounded and more than 24,200 Kyrgyz citizens were evacuated from the area because of the fighting in January.
Almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, leading to repeated tensions 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 involving military personnel along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border left dozens of people dead on both sides.
Batken regional authorities said a meeting of a bilateral delegation headed by Batken Governor Abdikarim Alimbaev and the head of Tajikistan's Sughd region, Rajabboy Ahmadzoda, took place on April 12.
The officials discussed the prevention of conflicts on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, recent events in the border areas, and ways to resolve them.
The delegates signed an agreement on reducing the involvement of additional armed forces in the Kyrgyz-Tajik border area.