E/R: One confirmed dead following clashes between herdsmen and famers

One person has been confirmed dead in a conflict between nomadic herdsmen and farmers at Maame Krobo in the Kwahu Afram Plains South District of the Eastern Region.

Chairman of the Eastern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) Seth Acheampong confirmed the death after visiting the troubled area.

The conflict resurged over the weekend between farmers at Maame Krobo and nomadic herdsmen.

The farmers and residents allege the herdsmen shot one person at his home in the township.

In a reprisal attack, the inhabitants chased the herdsmen out of the community.

But the situation is still volatile as the nomadic herdsmen are suspected to be hiding in the bushes and forest areas, putting fear in the farmers who cannot visit their farms.

Wife of the deceased Rebecca Agbovi demands justice and support for her four children who she says must return to school.

“My children need to return to school, who would support me do that? Their father has been killed. Government must support me, else I will knock on the doors of the District Chief Executive everyday.”

A sub-chief at Maame Krobo, Enoch Teye Soda, demanded that the perpetrators must be dealt with.

“The man was shot in his room. They shot through his window, he only had cloth wrapped around him. This is frightening, we can’t allow this to happen. Those who did this must be dealt with. My farmers cannot even go to their farms again.”

Security presence is still heavy in the area.

Mr Acheampong, who is also the Eastern Region Minister, visited Maame Krobo and assured of public safety to enable normalcy to return to the area.

“It is our mandate to provide public safety for the community. So we are going to work at it. You can never predict that an accident would occur. Nobody thought that this would occur, but it has happened. Once it has happened, the most important thing for us is to demonstrate enough rapid response and I am very happy that the security services and the DISEC ( District Security Council) have rapidly responded to the situation at hand. We are very confident that going forward, we would restore normalcy to the community.”

He added: “Very disturbing matter for the district and those of us in the region. This is a matter that is recurring. We seek to work at it to ensure it does not recur. Unfortunately as humans we cannot allow some of these things not to occur again. For us managing public safety, our first responsibility is to ensure that there is stability, peace and people are going about their daily chores undisturbed.

“Our primary call was to restore stability and peace to the community, fortunately public safety is assured, we have enough men on ground patrolling and offering necessary protection to the community members so that they have assurance that government is behind them.”

Successive government intervention of Operation Cow leg and the provision of ranches has not yielded result in putting an end to the conflict between farmers and nomadic herdsmen in the food basket district.

The conflict results from destruction of farm crops by the herdsmen to feed cattles and reprisal attack on cattles and nomadic herdsmen, who usually are not owners of the cattles.