26 Ivorian refugees arrested for murder

Twenty-six Ivorian refugees at Eagle Star Transit Refugee Camp at Elubo in the Western Region are helping the Police in their investigations into the murder of two refugees at the camp on Friday September 16.

The Jomoro District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) John Ferguson Dzineku made this known to the Ghana News Agency at Half Assini at the weekend.


He gave the names of the deceased persons as Konan Sindou, 38 and Coulibaley Issifu 30.


According to the Police Commander, the two men arrived at the Elubo border at about 1 pm on Thursday, September 15 to seek refugee status in Ghana with the UNHCR.


DSP Dzineku said officials of the UNHCR screened and sent them to the Elubo camp to be transported later to any of the refugee camps at Ampain in the Region or Egyirikrom near Elmina in the Central Region.


The Police commander said immediately Sindou and Issifu reached the camp some of the refugees protested against their presence with the explanation that they were Burkinabe nationals and could therefore not stay with them.

He said this generated into a hot argument among the officials of the International Organisation for Migration and the refugees.


DSP Dzineku said the authorities requested Sindou and Issifu to produce their Ivorian citizen identification cards, which they did.


He said the two men were therefore accepted at the camp and to the dismay of the authorities, they were found dead the following morning in a nearby bush with bruises at the neck of one of them.


He said the bodies have been deposited at the Half Assini Government Hospital morgue for autopsy.