Eight killed as gunmen raid settlements near Yendi

The Fulani settlement in Yendi

Eight people have been killed and several others missing after an attack Wednesday afternoon on a village of Fulani herders at Zakoli near Yendi in the Northern Region. 

The gunmen surrounded the village at about 1 pm, according to a survivor who was spared because she is a woman.

According to her, the gunmen separated women and children on one side and killed only the men. She says most of them were shot at close range.

The attackers burnt down the entire settlement and left others with machete injuries.

Dozens of livestock were killed and looted with motorcycles and other properties.

“When they came, they separated the men here, women and children here, and they killed all the men”, the elderly woman recounts the horror she witnessed.

” They killed my husband and his brother and burned our house to ashes”.

The gunmen after the attack retreated into the bushes and their identity is yet to be established.

Security sources however suspect angry locals could be behind it, as a reprisal for the killing of a young native teacher earlier in the morning.

The secondary school teacher identified as a tribal konkomba was said to be on his way to school when armed men suspected to be robbers attacked and killed him.

The sources conclude that this could have been the reason for the violence against members of the Fulani community who are accused of being involved in such crimes.

The village of the attack is less than 12kms from Yendi. Security personnel who were deployed to the scene arrived after the attackers had long fled from the area.

Accompanied by personnel of the Ambulance Service, the security personnel conveyed the bodies of the victims to be transported to the Tamale Teaching Hospital morgue.

“They have emptied the village. There is no man in this village again. The soldiers are also leaving us, so will just wait for our turn to be killed”, the woman laments as the security forces leave the village with the bodies.