The presence of Police personnel at the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra helped to avert a near bloody clash between the feuding Dagomba and the Zamrama traders on Wednesday.
Hitherto, the market was peaceful after the Police assisted to calm both sides after clashes between the two groups on Tuesday April 21 after allegation of assault on a Dagomba woman, whose nine-year old girl defecated at an area overseen by a Zamrama man.
The tension was rekindled at about 1050 on Wednesday after reports of assaults on Dagomba girls, mostly head potters who ply their trade among the Zamrama people.
This caused the Dagomba men, who are mostly scrap dealers, to cross to the side of the Zamrama people, who are mostly from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, to avenge the attack.
The Police had to fire warning shots to scare off both sides while a reinforcement team arrived to help calm the situation.
The leaders of both ethnic groups were later sent to the Regional Police Headquarters to help resolve the matter.
There were no casualties and no arrest were made.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Yusif Mahama, Vice Chairman, Greater Accra Scrap Dealers Association, who are mostly Dagombas expressed the readiness of the executives to work to ensure that no Dagomba misbehave again.
He expressed the readiness of his members to cooperate with the Police so that the tension and regular clashes between both sides does not erupt again.
Mr Mahama called on the leadership of the Zamrama people to talk to their members about the frequent clashes as this was about the fifth time both sides had fought.
He said Tuesday’s incident ended in two casualties who are receiving treatment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the arrest of Dagombas.
Mr Masawudu Saalisu, Chairman, Greater Accra Onion Cooperative Society, which is made up of the Zamrama ethnic group urged the media and the Dagombas to stop calling them foreigners as they also see Ghana as their home, adding that some of them were in the country n before Ghana gained its independence.
He said the leaders of the two ethnic groups would soon meet to come out with modalities on how to avoid future clashes.
Mr Mohamed Diann, the father of the child at the centre of the clash and the husband of the woman who was allegedly attacked by the Zamramas said his wife had been discharged from the Kaneshie Polyclinic and is recuperating at home.
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