Nkonya/Alavanyo curfew could be counterproductive – Bombande

The 14-hour curfew imposed on the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo could be counterproductive, security analyst Emmanuel Bombande has warned.

The curfew was recently renewed by the Regional Security Council following consultations with the Ministry of the Interior.

It is aimed at stemming the tide of recurrent gunfights between the Nkonya and Alavanyo communities in the Volta region.

The two communities have been fighting over a parcel of land for the past 90 years.

Bombande, who is the Executive Director of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) TOLD Paa Kwesi Asare on Starr Today that: “…It’s important that we do not see [the] curfew as a mechanism in itself that deals with a protracted conflicted that has a duration of more than nine decades.”

“…The curfew should be understood only in its temporary capacity to manage the escalation in the surge of violence,” he said.

He advised that the Government, which has the responsibility to protect people should “use curfews as a measure to control and coordinate security in order that people can be protected, lives protected and properties protected,” but not to see curfews as the panacea to the age-old conflict.

“To use that as if that in itself is dealing with the problem could be misleading and could be postponing and reinforcing a protracted conflict that reinforces itself and continues to make young people to become radicalized,” Bombande warned.