Conflicts have consequences, even after the combatants have settled down to negotiate.

On January 5, in the village of Arka-2 in Leilek district – the far west end of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken Region – a 32-year-old woman and her 11-year-old daughter were reportedly injured by an exploding shell that likely had been left over from the September 2022 conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Leilek district is surrounded by Tajikistan’s Sughd Region to the south, west, and north.

Kyrgyzstan’s Border Service, under the country’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS), stated that the house where the shell exploded had been almost completely destroyed by fire during the 2022 conflict.

RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Azattyk, reported that the woman and her daughter were cleaning up the yard. They picked up a metal object and threw it onto the concrete near the house. It exploded, injuring both with shrapnel.

Authorities in Batken reported that the head of the Leilek district police had met with the head of Tajikistan’s Gafurov district – the part of Sughd Region that borders the area, to

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