Youth Clash At Ntonso

A communal clash between some Zongo youth and the youth at Ntonso in the Kwabre East District in the Ashanti Region has left items destroyed.

It also left the windscreens of some vehicles smashed, shops vandalised, traders’ wares destroyed and rickshaws set ablaze.

The clash is said to have been sparked by some youth from the Ahwiaa Zongo, a suburb of Kwabre, who destroyed items belonging to residents of Ntonso after a night out at Ntonso.

So far, one person has been arrested, with the names of other people suspected to have been involved in the attack coming up.

It is unclear what really sparked the clash between the two groups, but information picked up by the Daily Graphic indicated that some Zongo youth from Ahwiaa and Aboaso were at Ntonso last Sunday evening to have fun at a popular bar there.

While returning to Ahwiaa, and without any provocation, the Zongo youth went on rampage and destroyed shops and even entered houses to destroy items.

That information was corroborated by the Kwabre East District Chief Executive, Nana Osei Assibey Bonsu, who said early in the morning, when the youth of Ntonso saw the damage caused the previous day, they assumed that it was done by the Zongo youth from Ahwiaa and went on a reprisal attack there.

He said the police had to call for support from Ntonso, which in turn called for reinforcement from the Mamponteng Police District and the Tafo Divisional offices to bring the situation under control.

Measures

He said the District Security Council had held an emergency meeting with all the stakeholders and asked that all economic activities cease by 8 p.m. yesterday.

Nana Bonsu said “this is just a precautionary measure to ensure that nobody takes advantage of the dark to do anything.”

According to him, “for now there is relative calm. The police will be patrolling the town and anyone found after 8 p.m. holding any harmful weapon will be arrested.”

He said drinking bars had also been asked to close down until further notice.

He said per the rules of the assembly, the bar in question should have closed at 10 p.m. but it operated till 2 a.m. when the first incident was said to have taken place.

Rival clashes

In 2018, there was a similar clash between Akan and Zongo youth at Ahwiaa, leading to the death of one person.

In the said clash, properties worth thousands of Ghana cedis were also destroyed.