Bawku conflict: at least 200 people have been killed

The Municipal Chief Executive of the Bawku Municipality, Adamu Hamza has revealed that the number of lives claimed in the area by the renewed conflict since 2021 is close to 200. Mr Adamu Hamza who spoke to Joy FM on Monday, August 14, 2023, said the numbers recorded by the police will be somehow less than what is in reality.

According to the MCE, some of the lives claimed through the conflict do not get recorded by the police because the people do not submit the corpses. He said the fighting now happens in areas that are not easy to reach by the police.

Mr Adamu Hamza was speaking following the recent shooting that claimed the life of one person while leaving three others injured. The prolonged conflict which has spanned decades, has continued to ravage the area, effectively making Bawku, a once flourishing town in the Upper East Region, the deadliest place to inhabit in the region.

Security officers who are on the ground to ensure sanity and maintain peace have not been spared the venom of the two warring factions. In April 2023, an officer with the Ghana Immigration Service, Assistant Inspector Philip Motey was shot dead by gunmen while two of his colleagues, Assistant Inspectors Lawrence Afari and Philip Ayidiya were seriously wounded. The incident which happened in front of the Bawku Police Station has yet to find closure with no one convicted.

Just recently in July 2023, a Kumasi-Bawku bound commercial bus was attacked in the North East Region in what is believed to a related to the ongoing renewed conflict in Bawku. One person was killed in the process prompting the police to launch a manhunt for the perpetrators.

In January 2022, Police Constable Regina Angenu was shot dead. Miss Angenu who was at the time of the incident was stationed at Paga, was visiting a colleague who was stationed at Bawku where she met her untimely demise.