We, Members of the Heuhina Koro Tindana Council of the Savannah Region of Ghana, call for peace and the pacification of the land due to the bloodshed on the land because of a dispute between two factions or groups in Gbeniyiri in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of Ghana.

The Heuhina Koro Tindana Council is made up of the aborigines of the land in the Bole and the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District and beyond the Savannah Region of Ghana.

These aborigines or the indigenous tribes of the land include the Vagla, Safalba, Choruba and Nomee.

The Vagla were the first occupiers of the land for centuries before the arrival of two groups in the current dispute over a parcel of land.

The Vagla and the associate groups thereby request the intervention of the Peace Council and the urgent need to find an amicable solution to the crisis.

The Vagla tribe and the associated groups are the ones with the traditional role to perform rites for the pacification of the land, as all the Earth Shrines are performed by the Vagla groups as the Custodians of the land.

The affected land will have to be pacified by Koro Tindana Council.

Heuhina Koro Tindana (Heuhina/Tindaamba/Tingbansoba Numa), the Earth Priests in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Bole Districts of the Savannah Region, want to appeal to the National Peace Council, the Savannah Regional Peace Centre and UNHRC to intervene to immediately restore peace in Gbeniyiri and the entire Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District and the Bole Municipality.

The conflict, which started on 23rd August 2025 at Gbeniyiri, a community near the Black Volta in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, brought an alarming humanitarian crisis, of which most of those affected persons were women, children, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and the aged.

Thus, the Heuhina Koro Tindana Council members cannot sit aloof during the crisis. The Council immediately issued a press release calling for peace, which was signed by the Earth Priests of the affected areas.

The release dated 24th August 2025 was published on media outlets, including Bole-Based Yagbon Radio: https://yagbonradioonline.com/koro-tindana-council-call-for-calm-in-the-ongoing-conflict-in-sawla-tuna-kalba/

Beyond the press release, the Heuhina Koro Tindana Council members of the Vagla, Safalba, Choruba and Nomee tribes are calling for the intervention of the Peace Council to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

These aboriginal tribes, having lived in the place where the disputes erupted, have a traditional role to appeal to the two factions who came and met the Vagla tribe on the land to embrace peace, while the Vagla group pacifies the land for the good of the factions.

Both the Gonjas (Ngbanya) and the Lobi/Brifo/Miwo tribes acknowledged the fact that both came and met the Vagla on the land, and the Vagla tribe and their associates often pacify the land including the Gbeniyiri land.

The Vagla community called Dagbigu Heu (Earth deity) has jurisdiction over Gbeniyiri. The Vagla tribe always performs all the land rites for peace. Therefore, the Earth Priest of Dagbigu and others will perform the land pacification rite.

We are very much concerned about the large number of people displaced from their homes and now living in conditions of no dignity outside their villages, with some living across Ghana.

We have a duty to de-escalate the conflict as a matter of urgency and work together for the return of these displaced people to reunite with their communities to ensure normal lives are restored in Gbeniyiri and the many affected communities across the two districts.

We (Heuhina Koro Tindana members) want to appeal to the conscience of all people not to politicise this unfortunate calamity that has befallen us. We are playing our traditional role as customs demand as the Earth Priests of the affected areas.

There is a need for all the warring factions to exercise restraints, avoid anger and exercise high emotional intelligence to calm down tempers.

It is only with low emotions that we can bring peace to enable us to mutually address our issues and move forward as people who have lived together for many decades.

This is the very land that provides us with food security, water, and the foundation of development, which ensures our future progress. Poverty and hunger await us and our next generations if we fail to embrace peace.

Let us join hands to fight our common enemy, which is poverty in Northern Ghana and the Savannah region.

We appeal to feuding parties or factions to seek peace, avoid political commentary, and avoid high-emotion social media commentary as we seek the intervention of our All-Mighty God, Allah, our Earth deities and our Ancestors to protect us against such calamities.

In 2023, the Vagla tribe and the associated Aborigines of the Land performed the Land pacification rites in a Vagla Community called Gindaabol, but spelt Jentilpe. This land pacification rite was necessitated by some spiritual forces that brought a calamity to West Gonja.

The calamity affected Vagla and Ngbanya (sometimes called Gonja) in 1895-97, which was termed the Samori War in Western Gonja. The Vagla tribe Chiefs and Elders slaughtered animals to pacify the land.

Vagla as the traditional custodian of the lands in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Bole Districts, among other districts, have never relented in pacification of the land against evil forces.

The Vagla Chiefs and Elders' prayers last year might have minimised the effect of this August tribal conflict between the Ngbanya (Gonjas) and the Lobis (Brifos).

Some of the Vagla tribes land pacification rites were published online, which may be accessible via:

https://www.modernghana.com/news/1281549/gindaabol-pii-pacification-the-sacred-mount-of.html

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Why-Black-Stars-have-failed-to-win-AFCON-since-1982-Part-1-1902608

Some reputable media outlets like Ghanaweb and Modern Ghana, among others, covered and published some of the traditional land pacification rites of the Vagla Chiefs and Elders.

The Heuhina Koro Tindana Council is the traditional Council of Vagla tribe and their associate groups.

It is prudent and traditionally right for the Vagla tribe and their associates to request the timely intervention of the Peace Council and others, and they are open to sharing with the Peace Council. MAY LASTING PEACE BE RESTORED TO OUR DEAR LAND!!!