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Analysts say ranching is ultimate solution
By John Eche
The crisis of nomadic Fulani cattle grazing that is currently ravaging West Africa took another turn in Ghana on Monday with herdsmen justifying their recent act of opening fire on a military patrol team at Agogo in the Asante Akyem North District of the Ashanti Region.
According to the a source close to the nomads, they were forced to take that line of action because the military had gone beyond their brief of being law enforcement officers but were now in collaborating with locals who were in the habit of secretly killing their cattle and going ahead to sell same to local food vendors.
In the attacks, no fewer than five soldiers were reportedly wounded even as the authorities have since confirmed the arrest of two persons in connection with the incident.
Two out of the five soldiers in particular sustained serious injuries and were immediately rushed to the nearby Agogo Presbyterian Hospital for treatment.
Clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and sedentary communities have continued to stir tension and unease in several parts of the West and Central African sub-regions.
In a series of attacks since the beginning of the year, and which had ostensibly being launched in defiance of a recently signed anti-open grazing bill, scores of community members have been killed across several villages in Nigeria’s Benue State.
Analysts have since suggested that the enduring solution is a transition to a regime of ranching.
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