One hacked, houses burnt in Konkomba, Fulani clashes

One person has been hacked and several houses burnt down after a communal violence escalated Wednesday between Konkombas and Fulani herders staying at the Ghanaian border district of Zabzugu in the Northern Region.

The clashes which started Tuesday morning was triggered by an attack on a Konkomba farmer, the District chief Executive Ahmed Iddi Adakwah confirmed to Starr News.

The farmer, according to sources, had tried to reprimand two fulani children for allowing some cattle to stray into his farmland and cause some destruction but the children returned home to report they were beaten up by the farmer.

The farmer was subsequently attacked at his farm and butchered in a confrontation that spiraled into the next day when the Konkomba farmer survived the cutlass attack at the hospital.

Clashes intensified when the konkombas launched a reprisal on several settlements dominated by the Fulanis starting from Jagrido where about 10 thatch structures were razed down after heavy exchanges, before nearly spreading to Wagardo, Jagbuni and two other hard to reach small villages near the Oti river.

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Jan 8, 2018 “A Fulani and Konkomba man had a misunderstanding and it resulted in the Konkomba man being butchered; so when it happened like that, the Konkombas launched something we call reprisal attack,” the DCE told Starr News from the troubled communities where he led members of the District Security Council to broker a ceasefire.

The gunfire exchanges were so fierce that many fulanis fled their homes in the district and crossed the river into neighboring Togo but the DCE has described as “relatively calm situation” and said no fatality had yet recorded in the Wednesday escalation.

According to the DCE, only a cow belonging to the Fulanis was killed in the clashes and insisted there was no proof many cattle had been shot and killed by the Konkomba attackers.

“I have not seen cattle shot dead. We have been in the bush from the morning up to this evening we’ve not found carcass; we only saw one, only one cow they brought home but if they say 50 that’s a figment of somebody’s imagination,” Adakwah said as he denied reports of mass killing of the animals.

Poor road and communication networks coupled with myriad of challenges facing the insufficient police force in the district continue to make it difficult for crime control, especially in these areas where civilians are well armed than the law enforcers.