NAIROBI: At least 20 people have been killed in Kenya in ethnic clashes in the restive northeast, the latest in a series of revenge attacks, government officials said on Monday.

Fighting broke out Sunday between rival ethnic Somali clans in the Tarbaj district of Wajir, along the border with war-torn Somalia.

Tarbaj deputy county commissioner David Rotich said 20 of the gunmen from both the Degodia and Garre clans died in the clashes.

The rural and remote region, one of Kenya's most volatile areas, is awash with guns and armed bandits.