Chereponi clashes:Displaced residents beseech govt for basic supplies for survival

Displaced residents of Chereponi, mainly women and children who fled from their communities during the conflict between the Anufos and Konkombas in the Northern Region are calling on the government to provide them with basic supplies to aid their survival in Gbintiri, a village around Chereponi.

Hundreds of people were displaced in the renewed conflicts that resulted in deaths, and several others injured in the Nothern part of the country.

The displaced persons particularly women, nursing mothers, and children numbering about 130 have migrated to Gbintiri and living in an abandoned house.

The people who are now internally displaced and living in a crowded space now struggle for food, water, and clothes to wear.

According to most of the children, they lost contact with their parents when they fled the conflict zone. Sixteen-year-old Dosa Augustina, Sixteen-year-old a Junior High School graduate from Tambon in Chereponi in an interview with Citi News said there is no food to eat at Gbintiri she does not know the whereabouts of her parents.

She told Citi News her home, along with many others were burnt.

“There is no place for us to sleep, no food to eat. The children usually cry because they are hungry.”

Dosa also said she does not know the whereabouts of her parents or “whether they are dead or alive.”She also added that her home along with many others was burnt in Chereponi.

Another Chereponi refugee in Gbintiri, Nor Komey also said: “I am here all by myself together with my colleagues who also came to this community. We are many all crowded in these small rooms. The floor is not cemented just sand and we are sleeping on it''.

He also said he wanted to join his JHS mates in a local school but there was no space for him.

“We are facing lots of challenges here, we don’t know where our parents are, we have no food to eat. I wanted to join the JHS here but I am told the school is full. Our books and all our learning materials were burnt. Our houses and even our animals. We are appealing to the government and other people to come and assist us''.

Meanwhile, some JHS final year students have been able to join their colleagues in the school to enable them to prepare for the BECE later this year.

Residents of Gbintiri, through their chief, Naa Zunzungu Jababu Wajack have provided accommodation, food and other materials to some of them. But they complain the situation has become burdensome.

Naabila Tani, a resident who is taking care of over 20 of these children appealed for the government's help.

“I am taking care of over 20 children and now feeding them is very difficult. I have used all that I had and now left with nothing. I want to appeal to the government to help us. We need food, water to drink. We also need clothes and even sandals for them. Because of the situation, the children have started begging people for food and nobody has. That is why we want the government to step in to help,” he said.

Another resident felt “the children are now becoming a source of worry to the community.”

He was also concerned that: “Now these children are going about begging” but added that “they are humans, we can’t drive them away from the community but we are also concerned about the situation.”

The chief of Gbintiri, Naa Zunzungu Jababu Wajack in a Citi News interview said the recent rainfall had made life even more difficult.

“We gave them accommodation but now we ourselves have nothing to live on. I am appealing to the government to give them and place for them to sleep. To add salt to injuries, one of the houses given to them had its roof ripped off during heavy rainfall.”

The East Mamprusi District Coordinator for National Disaster Management Organisation, NADMO, Adams Abubakari Meijida said NADMO was aware of the situation.

“We had information that some of the people from Chereponi area are here as refugees. We came to find out and registered about 133 of them. We reported the issue to the regional office and the East Mamprusi district assembly.”

“Currently, the region and the assembly are now trying hard to get some food items for them. We also want to add our voice to the appeal for support for these children. The assembly and the community gave them these two houses to manage for the time being so that we wait for the nation to send us something.”

 

READ ALSO:

• VIDEO: Chereponi residents migrate to Garinkuka to seek refuge
• Chereponi Clashes: About 1,028 immigrants in Garinkuka - NADMO official
• PHOTOS: Violence leaves Chereponi immigrants with burnt foodstuffs

For more Latest news in Ghana visit primenewsghana.com