Over 200 families of herdsmen have been displaced at Goriba and Zamwara in the Mamprugu Moiduri district after several armed natives raided two settlements and set them ablaze in a fresh clash between the ethnic community and the local farmers in the North East Region.

The violence was triggered on Saturday after a confrontation between a Mamprusi farmer and a yet to be identified man who was said to be a herdsman.

Sources say the farmer was shot multiple times by his attacker on his farm in Gorib and is currently in a critical condition at a local treatment facility around Mankarigu in the savanna region.

Angry youth of Yagaba and Kubori, the two capital towns, where the farmer hails, subsequently armed themselves with cutlasses and other deadly weapons and marched the 10 km journey to Goriba to retaliate. 

Residents of Zamwara who heard of the incident also attacked the fulani settlers and burnt down  their homes and properties.

The youth continued the attack on Sunday, rampaging through several camps in more villages and chased out dozens of cattle herdsmen and their families.

The native farmers accuse the Fulani tribal settlers of destroying their farm and also having ties with armed robbers and arms smuggling bandits who allegedly come from neighboring Nigeria and Burkina Faso to carry out robbery and smuggling operations.

There have been more than 5 robbery attacks on the Walewale - Kpasenkpe - Yagaba road in the last three months.

Last month, a 50-year-old man was shot and killed and four people severely wounded when suspected robbers blocked a section of the Walewale Kpasenkpe road between Sariba and Duu, the two communities where markets have already been shut down due to activities of the robbers.

To investigate the latest clash, a delegation by a Fulani international welfare group in Ghana, Tabital Pulaaku, was sent to the communities on a fact-finding mission. 

The National Organizer of the Malian based organization, Ahmed Barry tells JoyNews, over 15 homes were destroyed at Goriba alone and over 150 livestock massacred by the armed mob. He said some of the animals and several other properties were also stolen by the locals.

Ahmed described the attack as unprovoked and barbaric, saying there is no evidence the attacker who is still on the run, is a Fulani herdsman.

The organiser says this as the third major attack on the Fulani ethnic community, with the recent one being the killing of a 10-year-old boy in a village at Kpasenkpe near Walewale.  

The herdsmen have since reported the attack to both the police and the traditional authorities in the area, but no arrest has been made so far. 
The matter was also reported to the District Chief Executive and other security services, such as the BNI and the national security, in the district.

The police in Walewale which is superseding the Mamprugu Moiduri district confirmed the attack and promised to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book. 

The North East region became a hotspot with reported acts of violent disputes between farmers and herders in 2017 when the Mamprugu Traditional Council in Nalerigu introduced a mandatory royalty which requires herders in the Mampruguland to give one cattle every two years to a kraal committee. 

Tension between farmers and herders has intensified in communities along the White Volta river, with cows straying into crop-growing areas, leading to more frequent violent attacks on herding camps, particularly in the West Mamprusi and Mamprugu Mogduri districts. 

The tension has been exacerbated by a running court battle in Tamale against the Chief Operating Officer of the Nayiri Kraal committee, also member of the traditional council, Namang-rana Johnson Tahiru, who is being accused of cow rustling, by a wealthy Fulani cattle owner based in Bawku. 

A Memorandum of Understanding signed in December last year between the Nayiri has helped reduced communal attacks and atrocities in most villages.