UE: Doba, Kandiga chiefs pledge to smoke peace pipe

The chiefs of Doba and Kandiga have both pledged to allow peace to prevail in their communities after years of protracted conflict that has claimed lives and destroyed properties.

The twin communities that intermarry, have been at loggerheads over who is the rightful owner of a piece of land.

It is against this backdrop that the Paramount Chief of Sirigu, Naba Roland Atogumdeya Akwara III together with other chiefs, who had started a peace process months ago, invited the two factions – Doba and Kandiga to the Sirigu chief’s palace to deliberate on ending the conflict.

Flanked by their elders, Tindaamas, Assemblymen, and opinion leaders, both sides of the conflict pledged to lay down their arms through a series of engagements with their youth at their various community levels.

The Chief of Doba, Naba Atandagrewurekugre Abane regretted the impact the conflict has posed on his people. He said aside from the lack of development the community suffered in the past, many lives and properties have been lost “in a twenty-first century when people are going to the moon, we are taking weapons to kill ourselves.”

The Doba Chief through his spokesperson, Clement Anongtara Asakiya pledged his commitment to cease fire and allow the mediating team to work to ensure peace returns to both communities.

“From the Doba side, we want to pledge our commitment to the roadmap for peace. We will speak to the youth just as we have been speaking to them, to drop their arms and let us sit down and talk. There is no way that weapons will bring a solution to this problem. And so, we want to pledge our commitment [that] we will continue to talk to the youth. The painful truth is that everyone has had a negative bite because of this conflict.”

“So, we are now all beginning to know the reality, that, we cannot solve a problem by using violence. We will sit down and talk to our brothers from Kandiga. We want to also plead with Kandiga Naba and his people to also talk to the youth at his end for all of us to put down the weapons. We have become a laughing stock to the world and I think, enough is enough. Doba Naba pledges, and we pray and hope that very soon this conflict will be a thing of the past.”

On his part, the Naba Henry Abawine Amenga-Etego II, Chief of the Kandiga Traditional Area, said the land dispute has retard development in his traditional area and pledged to engage the youth of Kandiga for peace to prevail.

“I have promised to advise our youth to lay down their arms and look forward to peace to coming back to the area so that we can live together as we used to be. So, we have all promised to advise our youth. The conflict has retarded development in the area. As we all know; war has no development. We have always been talking to the youth to understand and let everything come to an end. It is only unfortunate that this problem has come, and nobody even wants it, it retards development.”

The facilitator for the peace process, Naba Atogumdeya Akwara III, Paramount Chief of Sirigu was full of joy that the two factions have agreed to lay down their weapons to give peace a chance.

“You can invite conflict zones and they will decide not to come. They may come, and when you ask them, they decide not to tell you whether they will agree or not. But you are a witness to what they said. They said that they have agreed to lay down their weapons. We are relatives and chiefs, so they cannot deceive us that they are going to lay down their weapons and tomorrow they will be fighting. It is true, that, people have gone there, and they have pledged or vowed that they wouldn’t take up guns, and the next day you will hear gunshots. We are not saying that after this, we may not hear [gunshots], but at least, it will be minimized and then we will start the peace process. We expect them to go back and speak to their youth and sooner than later we will also get back to the communities to talk to the youth”, Naba Atogumdeya Akwara II stated.

The roadmap for lasting peace between the people of Doba and Kandiga was brought together by the descendants of Atalmiiro, made up of Zeko, Yelwongo, and Tuungo in Burkina Faso, and from Ghana part is made up of Sirigu, Navrongo, and Bolga-Sherigu.

Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Sirigu|Ghana