The Chronicle has picked up credible information that two Fulani herdsmen have raped a lactating mother at Dromankese, a suburb of Nkoranza North in the Bono East Region.
Narrating the incident, the Assembly Member for the area, Mr. Evans Ohene Gyan, said the victim went to a nearby stream to fetch water, where the herdsmen approached her and forcibly had sex with her.
According to the Assembly Member, the woman, after the incident, told her husband who also reported the matter to the Chiefs and subsequently the police.
The Chiefs and the police have given the assurance that the matter would not rest till the culprits are arrested.
“The Chiefs and police have both given indications that they would do all they can to arrest the perpetrators of the crime and let the law deal with them,” Mr. Ohene Gyan said.
When the Nkoranza North District Police Commander, DSP Joseph Darlington, was contacted on phone, he confirmed the story and added that the police were investigating the matter.
“Yes, what you heard is true, and what I will say is the police are investigating the matter.”
Conflicts between farmers and Fulani herders are rampant in some communities in the country, due to the damage their cattle unleash on farms.
Although Fulani have been living in Ghana for generations they are still not accepted among the local community groups, and are excluded from certain areas of political life and health services.
It is an established fact that there are conflicts among competing lands and water resource users in West Africa.
While some scholars attribute these rising resource use conflicts to growing scarcity of resources, others contend that it is the consequence of failed of the governance structures and local conflict resolution mechanisms.
Investigations in Northern Ghana in early 2019, as part of the Domestic Security Implications of Peacekeeping in Ghana (D-SIP) programme point to the fact that both resource scarcity, such as decreasing grazing land and increasingly stressed water resources and social relations, explain conflicts between local farmers and settler Fulani.
For instance, according to investigators, a closer look at the conflicts between local community famers and settled pastoralists in the Gushiegu Municipality in the Northern Region of Ghana suggests an escalation.
Although the Fulani pastoralists have lived in the Gushiegu area since the 1940s, they are increasingly experiencing tension with the indigenous community groups, such as the Dagombas, Mamprusis, Konkombas, and Bimobas.
At a point in time, the Kwahu South District Assembly burned an estimated 100 Fulani homes and killed an unspecified number of cattle in an attempt o flush the herdsmen out of the area.
The authorities of the District justified the actions by saying that there had been reports that the herdsmen were involved in illegal activities.
In 2018, the Akufo-Addo administration constructed a cattle ranch to end the incessant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and the indigenous people of Kwahu Afram Plains.
The ranch, located at Wawase in the Kwahu Afram Plains South District of the Eastern Region on the 680-acre fodder bank, was expected to confine over 6,000 cattle.
President Akufo-Addo said at the time that the GH¢1.8 million project, which was started by former president Kufuor in 2007, was aimed at averting the clashes between herdsmen and peasant farmers in the area.
Earlier in 2016, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government claimed it had acquired 10,000 hectares in the northern part of the country to relocate Fulani herdsmen and their cattle from troubled areas of the country.
A unique feature of the Cattle Village, according to then President John Mahama, was to be the stationing of veterinary and allied staff to provide the needed services. The dream did not materialise before Mr Mahama left office in the December 2016 presidential election.
The post Two Fulani herdsmen rape lactating mother appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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