 A 26-year-old hardened member of a notorious Togolese mercenary gang allegedly hired into the porous Chereponi district to ferment trouble by assisting in the renewed land related clashes among the two long-standing indigenous neighbours has been captured by security forces separating violent conflict between chokosis and konkombas in the North East region.
This comes after repeated assertions by both factions, Konkombas and Chokosis that foreign fighters had invaded the Chereponi district, some in military uniforms and using hard-body pickup vehicles, unleashing indiscriminate rogue operations including raiding villages of their targets and ambushing fleeing civilians.
It also followed an announcement made by the Northern regional minister, Salifu Saeed, during a news conference days ago that, security forces specialised in cross-border crimes and counter terrorism had been deployed to the troubled area.
Occasional violence over land has persisted between the two ethnic tribes since mid-2000. It renewed in 2017 at the ground zero community of Naduni, where two konkombas were killed during the violence.
In January 2019, fighting erupted, and again in March, which is currently relaxed but has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe after more than 20 communities completely burnt and about four people killed.
The latest violence started at a village known as Kwame- Nazori where unknown gunmen, operating under the cover of darkness, were said to have opened fire on a crowd preparing for a pass-out ceremony.
The following day, deadly reprisals rocked the entire district for days and escalated to neighbouring Yunyoo and Saboba and were spreading to far Bunkprugu and Gushegu districts. In the violent spillover, one person was killed and properties destroyed in two separate villages in the Yunyoo district and over five communities were burnt in Saboba, where a local chief escaped a fatal attack.
Briefing the media,the PRO of the Northern regional police, DSP Mohamed Yussif Tanko said:
“The last person [for now] to be arrested is one Martin Gulani. We suspect him to be a mercenary who was hired from Togo to come and assist in the conflictâ€.
“Indeed, he has admitted to that and gone ahead to mention six others with whom he came on four motorbikes from Togoâ€, DSP Tanko added.
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According to the police, the notorious gang was hired from a nearby Togolese village called Gbangu.The suspect was arrested in Chereponi after he got separated from his gang and lost his way.Police said the suspect was planning to escape to Ejura in Ashanti region to plan his return to Togo.
The police also revealed that it has launched an extensive manhunt for the other suspects and their local accomplices and paymasters. So far, 11 persons have been arrested in the violence. Eight have been put before the court with varied charges and remanded in custody.
“We are carrying out investigation to see if we will be able to identify the others he has mentioned and arrest them: not only those persons mentioned, those who influenced their coming into the country from Togo to come and add up and also disturb the peacefulness of the area,â€the PRO stated.