Fulani herdsmen invade Katua Forest Reserve in Wa East District

The Katua Forest Reserve in the Wa East District is being destroyed as a result of activities by invading Fulani Herdsmen and their cattle.

The Herdsmen have recently pitched their camps in the reserve and made the area a grazing field for their cattle, slashing down branches of trees as fodder for their cattle.

Journalists including a Director from the Upper West Regional Coordinating Director could not believe it when they saw for themselves the huge destruction done to the reserve by herdsmen and their cattle.

The journalists and the coordinating director on returning from an annual general meeting of the Bawiesibelle Youth and Development Association on Saturday spotted the destruction on the forest.

The journalists spent some time in the forest to determine the extent of the destruction and realised that many of the trees that had had fresh leaves on their branches had been slashed down as fodder for the animals.

Valuable trees such as shea and other fruit trees were also not exempted while water bodies in the area had also been destroyed.

Farmers in the area also complained about the destruction of tuber crops such as yam and cassava on their farms by the cattle belonging to the herdsmen as residents of the area called on authorities of the forest reserve to act swiftly to get the herdsmen and their cattle out of the reserve to save it from the destruction.

They said the lives of the farmers and women who go to the bush in search of fuel wood and vegetables were under threat by the herdsmen who attempted to attack them at the least provocation.

A resident who spoke to the GNA on telephone said farmers in the community and other surrounding communities have been compelled to fetch water from their boreholes and other sources and carry it to their farms on daily basis.**