More soldiers to keep peace in Bawku

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Bolgatanga
13/03/08

About one hundred military personnel have been flown to Bawku in the Upper East Region to strengthen peacekeeping efforts in the area.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Hamidu Mahama, who made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said the deployment of the military personnel was a result of the resumption of violence in the area this week.
He expressed the hope that the reinforcement would significantly improve peace in the area.
Renewed fighting in Bawku on Monday night and Tuesday has claimed at least two lives. A number of houses have also been burnt down. The dead have been identified as Lawale Muntala, 44, and Sulemana Imoro, 30.
Muntala, a Moshie, and Sulemana, a Hausa by tribe, who were both cattle dealers, were said to be travelling to Bittou in Burkina Faso on a motorbike for business.
According to the Upper East Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Victor Seth Agbentornyo, when they got to an area called Beriberi at about 9 a.m. unknown assailants allegedly attacked them, robbed them of their money and mobile phones and killed them. He said the bodies of the deceased had been deposited at the Bawku Hospital Mortuary.
Mr Agbetornyo said the death of the two sparked off sporadic shooting, adding that there was even an attempt to set a police rented quarters ablaze but the police quickly mobilised and foiled the move.
The Minister of the Interior on the advice of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has by Executive Instrument extended the curfew in Bawku to Pusiga, Zabugu, Binduri and Zoosi, all in the Upper East Region, with immediate effect. The curfew will now start from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day.
The Government on Monday relaxed the curfew at Bawku and its environs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. following what it described as “the return of relative normalcy” only for the situation to escalate the next morning.