A 70-year old man is the latest casualty in the renewed ethnic violence in the Northern regional town of Bunkrugu last Sunday.

It brings the death toll to three following clashes between the Jafouk and Jamong factions.

After a power cut to the area last Sunday, one group began firing shots and burning homes. The Regional Minister was compelled to call the Northern Electricity Department to restore power.

The Bunkprugu-Yunyoo township was placed under a 15-hour curfew by the Interior Ministry in a similar violence in April this year.

In the latest incident, Joy News Northern Regional correspondent Hashmin Mohammed reported that two bodies were found in an uncompleted building last Friday.

The two were allegedly killed on their farms. It is suspected that they were later damped into a dam before the bodies were moved and hidden in the building.

The faction of the deceased began to suspect foul play following circumstances surrounding the deaths. Their suspicions were further aroused after the chief in the community forbade the family of the deceased from burying their relative in the community.

The police were called in to defuse tensions within the community. 

According to Joy News’ Seth Kwame Boateng, one faction had been looking for the opportunity to launch a reprisal after the mysterious death of two of their own on Friday.

On Sunday evening, after a power cut, one group took their chance, Hashmin explained.

Scores of houses were also razed down as clashes in the town intensified. Shootings were sporadic. A 25-year-old student who has also been shot is struggling for his life at the Baptist hospital in Nalerigu.

Hashmin further explained that the police were overwhelmed by the force power of the aggressive groups. He said the weapons are believed to be more sophisticated than the police who were also quickly outnumbered at the height of the violence.

The Bunkrugu community, a typical rural community, is nestled within the mountainous areas in the Northern region and is also close to the northern Togo border.

Some of the residents often flee into the mountainous areas or into Togo when violence in the community becomes uncontrollable.

It is also believed that the attackers obtain their sophisticated weapons fromTogo.

This is the fourth time in one month since the two groups turned belligerent on each other. On each occasion the police intervened.

Bunkprugu-Yunyoo District Chief Executive Timothy Sampoa Laari told Joy News, all activities have come to a standstill in the town since Sunday's violence.

Police and military personnel in nearby towns have been deployed to stop sporadic shootings and burning of houses there as they await the arrival of reinforcement.