DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least six people have been killed and three others have been injured in a fight between farmers and livestock keepers in Tanzania's eastern district of Kilindi in Tanga region, police said on Monday.
Safia Jongo, the Tanga regional police commander, said the farmers and livestock keepers fought on Sunday using traditional weapons, including spears and machetes.
"The situation is now calm in Elerai and Kibirashi villages where the fighting erupted," Jongo told Xinhua in a telephone interview, adding that three of the dead were farmers.
Jongo said among the dead were a woman and a child, both from the livestock keeping community.
The inspector general of police, Simon Sirro, and the Tanga regional commissioner, Adam Malima, visited the villages affected by the fight on Monday and held a reconciliation meeting with the villagers, a journalist with state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation told Xinhua.
"The conflict between the farmers and livestock keepers in Elerai and Kibirashi villages has been simmering for the past 20 years," said Abel Busalama, the Kilindi district commissioner.
The fight started when farmers in the two villages tried to drive away young Maasai herders who had invaded their farms, said Busalama. ■