Curfew imposed on Yendi

A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on Yendi in the Northern Region due to mounting tension between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates to Ya-Na Skin of the Dagbon Traditional Area.

Two people sustain gunshot wounds when the two factions clashed on Monday morning forcing the Northern Regional Security Committee to deploy armed soldiers and police to the area to stop the violence.

The Regional Security Committee have also banned the celebration of this year's annual Bugum (Fire) Festival at Yendi that was expected to take place on Monday night. Tension has been mounting between the two gates since last January over the celebration of the Muslim Eid ul-Adha festival.

The Andani Gate that is currently occupying the Dagbon Skin was said not to have been happy when the rival Abudu Gate celebrated the festival in the traditional way at the house of its regent.

Since then, there had been rumours of an imminent attack and counter-attack by the rival chieftaincy gates, which boiled over into an exchange of gunfire on Monday morning.

The clash was precipitated when one of the factions allegedly attacked a young man from the rival camp and destroyed his bicycle. Soldiers deployed in the town managed to bring the situation under control.

It is to avert a possible clash during the fire festival that the District Security Committee and the Regional Security Committee cancelled the festival and imposed a dusk to dawn curfew. There had been a long-standing dispute over the succession to the Ya-Na Skin.

The District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that the two have been admitted to the Yendi Government Hospital.

He said the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes. Mr Tijani said he was going round the town to assess the situation adding that the Police had not made any arrest yet.