More bodies found; Bimbilla death toll now at 19

More bodies are being discovered on farms as police intensify the search for ringleaders of last Thursday’s gunfight in Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region.

Seven more bodies discovered on Sunday put the death toll in the communal conflict at 19.

The bodies have since been deposited at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Our correspondent observes that the conflict is turning into a guerilla warfare, which has been characteristic of every Konkomba-Nanumba conflict.

The police have already arrested and arraigned before a Tamale district court eight persons including the registrar of the Nanumba Traditional Council.

Last Thursday’s conflict was sparked by a directive from the regent of Nanum to have butchers of the town send part of their slaughtered meat to his palace, as part of a long-standing tradition, which seems to have run into oblivion as a result of the chieftaincy disputes there.

The butchers were said to have failed to comply with the directive, forcing guards from the regent’s palace to attack them.