The joint police-military team at Chereponi where three people have been killed and several communities torched, says it is ‘gradually taking control’ of the situation despite claims by security analysts that the conflict is escalating.
Twenty-two communities have been torched in the renewed conflict since last weekend, leaving more than 1,800 people displaced in the poverty-stricken area where the konkombas and the Chokosis have for decades been fighting over a parcel of land.
At least eight persons have been arrested in the renewed conflict and six single-barrel guns as well as a locally manufactured gun seized.
The displaced, mostly children and women have been fleeing the troubled Chereponi town.
The police say they have placed the displaced children and women in “safe places” and deployed personnel into the remote parts of the area to respond to distress calls.
Despite police and military presence, some troublemakers from both feuding factions have been attacking their opponents on the blind side of the security personnel.
The security personnel on the ground appear to have been overwhelmed by the daily reports of torching of communities and appealed for more logistics, particularly four-wheel drive vehicles to help in patrolling the remote areas where these attacks occur.
Just Tuesday night, one more Chokosi community, according to the Police, was torched.
Security analyst Albert Yelyang told Joy News the active gun firing in the area points to a worsening situation. He claimed to have seen videos of the latest conflict in which many rounds of bullets were fired at night.
For his part, Adam Bonaa, said the request by the Police suggests “they are overstretched.
“It just tells you how under-resourced they are and coupled with the humanitarian crisis staring at them…if they don’t speak up someone is going to blame them for not calling for additional resource,” he said.
“The rate at which [the conflict] is spreading could develop into something else if the Executive doesn’t speak and probably garner all the resources we can,” he told Joy News.
Situation under control
But Northern Regional Police PRO DSP Mohammed Yussif Tanko told journalists Wednesday that the “Police and military are gradually taking control of the situation”.
In line with that, the Police in the area in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service on Wednesday prevented some Konkomba students of the Chereponi Senior High Technical School from fleeing the town over insecurity.
DSP Tanko admitted there appears to be a competition between the Konkombas and the Chokosis as they are engaged in what he termed as equalisation in unleashing harm on each other, noting 11 of the 22 communities burnt are for the Konkombas and the other for the Chokosis.
“…there is a competition between the two feuding parties to equalise the burnings and the destructions that are on-going,” he stated, adding these attacks are “done in the cover of darkness in the remote places”.
DSP Yussif Tanko said “that notwithstanding, the Police and the military are putting in place every possible strategy to ensure that this [attack] is halted”.
He has meanwhile, appealed to the community leaders to give peace a chance, saying “they should agree to dialogue among themselves and eschew acts of violence”.
That, he explained, would ensure that their people get the peace and security that they need to operate.
Logistics
The Police PRO also said following the request made, they on Tuesday received reinforcement and vehicles to help in their operations on the ground.
By 3news.com|Ghana