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President Kufuor invites Bawku Naba
for talks on conflict
Accra, June 25, Ghanadot/GNA - President
John Agyekum Kufuor has invited the Bawku Naba, Asigiri
Abugrago Azoka II, for another round of talks on Thursday at
the Castle Osu, following the eruption of fresh violence
that has killed 13 people.
A press release signed by Mr Andrew Awuni, Press Secretary
to the President and Presidential Spokesman, said the
meeting was part of a consultative process that had been
going on for some time now towards finding lasting solution
to the ethnic disturbances in Bawku and its environs.
President Kufuor had a meeting with the Bawku Naba and
elders of the Mamprusis last month after which tensions
appeared to have calmed down.
President Kufuor has, ahead of Thursday's meeting, appealed
to the feuding factions to exercise restraint and give peace
a chance while their Leaders continued with efforts to
resolve the age-long dispute.
Eleven people were last Saturday killed and seven others
injured in Buabula, near Sabongare, in the Bawku
Municipality in the Upper East Region in a retaliation bid
after a Mamprusi man was allegedly killed by Kusasis.
The carnage began when one Mr Abugre Zakaria, alias Amengo,
a Mamprusi man, lost his horse and went together with two
colleagues to search for it at Buabula, near Sabongare, on
Saturday at about 1700 hours.
While searching for the horse, they were kidnapped by some
people believed to be Kusasis. Amengo's colleagues managed
to escape but he was killed.
In retaliation it was alleged that a group of Mamprusis
disguised themselves and went to the area where their
compatriot was murdered and they killed 10 people, who were
mostly women, children and the aged.
Two more deaths were recorded subsequently.
Hundreds of people have been fleeing the area to Togo and
Burkina Faso as sporadic gunfire has been ringing in the
area since the weekend.
The Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday that the
curfew imposed on Bawku Municipality and its environs
following hostilities between the Kusasis and Mamprusis had
been renewed for another week from June 23.
The curfew hours still remained from 1800 hours to 0600
hours each day.
The Interior Minister Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor in a press
release announced that the curfew would be subject to
revision depending on the security situation in the area.
The renewal of the curfew was based on the advice of the
Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC), the press
release said.
"Government is very much concerned about the renewed
hostilities between the Kusasis and Mamprusis in the Bawku
Municipality and continues to urge all citizens and
well-meaning people in the area to exercise the utmost
restraint to give peace a chance," the press release said.
GNA
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