Government has with immediate effect imposed curfew on Chereponi and Saboba areas where renewed clashes between two ethnic groups have since Monday left two persons dead and several others injured.
The 4:00pm to 7:00am curfew announced by the Interior Ministry Thursday was based on the advice of the Northern Regional Security Council following the violent clashes that has also seen several houses torched and caused some residents to flee.
Per the curfew, residents of the area are banned from carrying arms, ammunition or any offensive weapon.
“Any persons found with any arms or ammunition will be arrested and prosecuted,” the statement signed by the Interior Minister Ambrose Dery warned.
The Monday incident between the Konkombas and Chokosis is said to have been triggered by litigation over a piece of land at Naduni, a farming community in the Chereponi district.
The Interior Ministry in the Thursday statement urged chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, youth and people of the area “to exercise restraint in the face of the challenges confronting them as well as to use non-violent means to channel their energies into ensuring peace in the area”.
Call for Akufo-Addo’s intervention
Meanwhile, the people of Chokosi have called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to urgently intervene in the latest attacks against them by some Konkombas in the Chereponi area.
At a news conference in Tamale Thursday, spokesperson for the group, Dr Solomon Gumanga said six communities in the area have so far been torched, noting the Achuma and Terkasu communities were torched on December 3, 2019 amidst claims of adequate security by the Northern Regional Security Council.
“We picked intelligence that the Konkomba people will attack us but we thought it was a mere rumour. Now we’re faced with it. Our people have been chased out of their communities with Kulkpeni, Terkasu, and Achuma burnt this morning”, Dr Solomon Gumanga claimed.
Nanduni, Nabrumu, Nabruk, Achuma, Terkasu, and Kulkpeni all in the Chereponi District have been torched. Residents of these communities have fled to neighbouring Togo.
The group has accused the Defense Minister and Member of Parliament of Bimbila Constituency Dominic Nitiwul of directing army officers to prevent residents of Chereponi from attacking while their opponents from the Saboba District are left loose to attack them.
The Chokosis want the Defense Minister to step aside if he cannot “call his tribesmen to order”.
“There are certain information we can’t give out but all what’s going on points to the Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul; they’re his people and they’re doing this because they know they are protected under his regime. People have been made to step aside in such cases so he should also be made to set aside if he can’t control his people,” Gumanga.
By 3news.com|Ghana