Ya-Naa Andani beheaded ...

Ghana has declared a state of emergency in a northern town after a tribal chief and around 25 of his guards were killed in factional clashes, police and witnesses reported on Wednesday.

The fighting, which began on Monday, is part of a long-running dispute over the traditional chieftaincy in Yendi, 50 miles north of the provincial capital Tamale.

An information ministry statement said that the tribal chief Yakubu Andani -- the Ya-Na or Paramount Chief of the Dagombas of northern Ghana -- and some of his associates had been killed during overnight fighting.

Private radio station Joy FM quoted witnesses in Yendi as saying that the Ya-Na had been beheaded and the bodies of him and around 25 of his bodyguards set on fire. His palace had also been destroyed, they added.

Police sources confirmed the estimates, but could not give definite casualty figures.

Police reinforcements and soldiers have been sent to the area to enforce a dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed on Monday, but witnesses in the town said sporadic shooting had continued even after they arrived and Yendi remained tense on Wednesday.

Local radio stations said many residents had fled the fighting.

The clashes came as Yendi's traditional fire festival, known as the Bugum festival, was due to start.

It is regarded as one of the West African country's most picturesque festivals, involving a night-time display of drumming, dancing and blazing torches believed to commemorate the search for the missing son of a previous Dagomba chief.

The Dagomba of Ghana

• People name: Dagomba
• Their language: Dagbani
• Population: (1990) 488,200
  (1995) 567,300
  (2000) 655,700
• Largest religion: Muslim (Sunni) 52%
  Ethnic religionist 37%
  Muslim (Ahmadi) 8% The Dagomba are a large people group living in northern Ghana. Their kingdom, called Dagbon, was established centuries ago and dominated an area near the Dagomba capital of Yendi. Yendi was located east of the White Volta River and north of Tamale. In the 1600's, the Gonja people began to attack Dagbon from the west, pushing the Dagomba across the White Volta and forcing them to abandon their capital. Yendi was soon renamed Yendi Dabari which means "ruined Yendi."

  By the end of the 1600's, however, the Dagomba pushed eastward, establishing a new capital for their kingdom (also called Yendi) and located east of Tamale near the border of Togo. In the early 1700's, the Dagomba rallied against the pressuring Gonja and succeeded in driving them back. Today, the Dagomba remain a powerful people. They speak Dagbani, which is a Gur language.