Ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan claimed the lives of at least 80 people, leaving over 1,060 injured, the Kyrgyz news agency AKIpress cited the latest report by the country's health ministry on Sunday.
Deadly ethnic riots swept through the country's second-largest city of Osh and another southern city of Jalalabad on Friday and Saturday.
Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups set ablaze cars, crushed the stores and markets as well as the residential houses. The looters have been rampaging through the streets during the days of rioting.
At least 604 people have been hospitalized and another 380 received ambulatory treatment. Six severely injured Kyrgyz citizens have been transported to hospitals in Moscow by a Russian emergencies ministry's cargo plane.
Kyrgyz interim government passed a decree on Saturday declaring a partial mobilization of the civilian reservists and allowed police and the troops to shoot to kill in order to quench the riots and stop marauders.
Local authorities declared on Sunday a 24-hour curfew in the city of Osh and surrounding regions despite the latest official reports claiming that the calm returned to the streets of the city with the nightfall.
The humanitarian situation in southern Kyrgyzstan remains complicated as most of the businesses have been closed down and the residents started to feel shortages of food and medical supplies.
Officials from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are set to gather on Monday to discuss the ways to resolve the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, including possible deployment of a peacekeeping contingent to the violence-hit Kyrgyzstan.
CSTO, a post-Soviet security bloc, comprises Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti)
