Mamaga Ametor III, the Paramount Queen of Alavanyo, has urged the Interior Ministry to revoke the curfew imposed on the Alavanyo and Nkonya townships.
On June 23, the Ministry of Interior renewed the curfew hours for Alavanyo and Nkonya townships and their surrounding areas in Volta and Oti Regions.
The curfew restricts movement within the designated areas from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.
Alavanyo and Nkonya have been entangled in a boundary dispute since 1923. The contested land, abundant in timber, bamboo, and cola nuts, has been a source of ongoing violence for many years.
Various strategies have been employed to manage the conflict, including military and police interventions, court adjudications, peacebuilding initiatives involving stakeholders, and mediation efforts.
In an interview with Citi News on Tuesday, Mamaga Ametor III stated that despite the historical conflict, the two townships had maintained peace for the past seven years, making the renewal of the curfew unnecessary.
She expressed concern that this directive could potentially undermine the peace-building efforts between the two communities and hinder their development.
“We want to move forward, We want development. Now that we are in peace, development has started coming in. The Ministry of Interior has come out to place a curfew on Alavanyo and Nkonya, which is sucking the development away.
“We want to bring development [but] now because of the curfew, the development has stopped. The Alavango side is centred. The Canadian embassy has also placed an embargo on their staff not to go to Alavango or Nkonya to do any developmental issue because the place is not safe.”
“Now there is a road between Alavanyo and Nkonya which we think, or I believe or government should develop so that the peace continues smoothly. They have not been doing that. There’s a REGSEC committee. There’s a MUSEC committee in place in the region. No information from them.
“Then the minister just came up from nowhere to announce curfew in Alavanyo and Nkonya which is dwindling development in the area. So we are asking them to reverse the curfew [and] do their proper investigation. Though there was a conflict between us we have put that behind us,” she stated.
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