The police in the Upper West have arrested five persons who they say instigated bloody clashes between two rival illegal mining groups at Zongo over the weekend.

According to the Deputy Upper West Regional Police Commander, ACP Peter Ndekugri, four leaders of both factions along with the other who is reported to have started the fight, were arrested after several people sustained cutlass and gunshot wounds.

The leader of “Jamaican Youth”, one of the factions, Alhaji Abdullah Iddriss said that he received a call from one of his people on Friday, November 2, that their team was being attacked at Zongo.

“When I got there, five of my boys were in a pool of blood as a result of the gun and cutlass wounds they received and we took them to the hospital.”

“The injured were taken to the hospital but their opponents attacked them again after their wounds were dressed,” ACP Ndekugri told Joy News.

He added that the Regional Command had deployed some officers to the hospital but the attackers had run away.

“After twenty minutes after the police arrived in the hospital, another person was brought in with his arm almost chopped off,” he stated.