Fulani Menace: 200 officers deployed to end violence

Some 200 joint police and military personnel have been deployed to the Asante Akyem North and Sekyere Afram Plains districts of the Ashanti and Eastern Regions respectively in response to recent attacks on residents and security personnel in the area by Fulani herdsmen.

Earlier this week, three military officers and a police officer were shot and wounded by persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen when the officers went to the bush as part of measures to evict the nomadic herdsmen and their cattle.

The 200 joint military and police personnel including officers from the air force, have been given the mandate to push back the herdsmen from new areas they have occupied, arrest perpetrators of recent acts of violence for prosecution and augment the efforts of Operation Cowleg, an ongoing security operation aimed at dealing with the operations of the herdsmen in the area.

Agogo has been a haven for Fulani herdsmen whose grazing cattle have been destroying farms of the locals leading to calls for their ejection.

The locals have forcibly tried to eject the herdsmen and their animals from their land leading to deaths on both sides.

Government, as part of efforts to control the situation formed the Operation Cowleg, a joint police and military task force to help deal with herdsmen and their cattle.