Ahmadjon, a three-year-old boy from Tajikistan, died in a hospital on 16 September 2022 from two injuries to the abdomen sustained earlier that day. His family’s car had come under attack as they tried to flee fighting on the Kyrgyzstan border, most likely by Kyrgyz forces. “He didn’t even cry,” his mother told us. Two ambulances were also targeted.
The same day, Abboz, a 14-year-old Kyrgyz boy, saw his father, Suhrob Kenjebaev, killed in front of him, as the family’s car also came under fire. Abboz’s mother, who was wounded, told him to keep silent when Tajik soldiers surrounded the car. They eventually left the family for dead.
Ahmadjon and Abboz are among the scores of civilians whose lives have been ravaged by the callous and apparently unlawful actions of the forces of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan during their border conflict of September 2022.
