The Interior Minister, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has received the report from the Gbenyiri Mediation Committee, which was set up to mediate communal clashes between the Gonja and Lobi/Birifor communities in the Savannah Region.
The Committee, constituted on September 11, 2025, was tasked with promoting dialogue, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence following clashes in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba enclave of the region.
It was also to provide a roadmap for rebuilding trust, strengthening tolerance, and restoring long-term stability in the affected communities.
The Minister, receiving the report on Friday, applauded the committee for its work and assured the Government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations.
He noted that the Government would follow up with visits to traditional and community leaders in the communities to commend them for their resolve to peace and reconciliation.
Mr Muntaka expressed appreciation to development partners for their support in the process and appealed for continued assistance in rebuilding social cohesion in the Gbenyiri community.
Mr Emmanuel Bombande, Chairperson of the Committee, said they employed open, honest engagement between the two feuding parties to understand the scope and dynamics of the conflict.
He said the dialogue gave a unique and crucial opportunity for direct conversation on the underlying issues with the goal of rebuilding trust and restoring relations between them.
“Through diligence and systematic approach, we employed all the available means that we could put together to build bridges, to reinstate trust and appealed to all stakeholders for the tolerance and calm that was needed to facilitate dialogue,” Mr Bombande said.
“These discussions were significant in exchanging viewpoints regarding barriers and the pacification of the specific areas where violence erupted and where people were killed.”
Mr Bombande urged the Government to prioritise the implementation of the recommendations and establish a clear roadmap and monitoring mechanism to ensure that the proposals translated into lasting peace and stability in the area.
He added that conflict resolution required sustained effort and collective responsibility.
On Thursday, September 11, 2025, the Government set up a seven-member Gbeyiri Mediation Committee in response to the escalating ethnic clashes between the Birifor and Gonja groups in Gbeyiri, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District.
The violence, triggered on August 23, 2025, by a disputed land sale to a private developer, had claimed at least 31 lives, destroyed property, and displaced over 50,000 people, making it one of Ghana’s worst internal crises in recent years.
Other members of the Committee included Alhaji Collins Dauda, Member of Parliament for Asutifi South; Reverend Father Lazarus Anyereh, from the Savannah Regional Peace Council, and Dr Festus Aubyn, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.
Also were Madam Sylvia Hornam Naagbeseu, a legal expert from the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre; Professor Ramatu Alhassan of the University of Ghana Department of Agricultural Economics, and Dr George Amoh, Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
