Tribal war deter road link

By JAMES KILA
A TRIBAL conflict has forced hundreds of villagers in the remote Tebega and Dunantina areas of Henganofi district in Eastern Highlands to trek up to 150km over mountains to sell their coffee produce and buy goods in Kainantu district.
The roads that the villagers normally take were no longer safe, according to Willo Bafenu, a ward councillor from the Kainantu local level government.
He said that the warring tribes set up roadblocks and destroyed some bridges after the general election.
He claimed that several people had also been killed and that a top-up primary school in Kivirinave village in the Dunantina constituency was burnt down.
He said the Henganofi police could do little to control the situation.
Mr Bafenu, whose Hamori village provides shelter and food for the Tebega and Kesavaka villagers, urged the candidates who had lost in the elections to return to their villages and re-establish peace.
“The villagers have been living in peace all along until ‘power-hungry’ people living in towns and cities came up and created differences between them.
“Some of these candidates are now living in the comfort of their houses in towns and cities while the poor villagers are suffering,” he said.
“I sympathise with these villagers because they have to trek bush tracks across steep mountains to buy their flour and rice bags and they tend to get soaked in the rain,” he added.
He also called on village councillors and church leaders to help resolve the situation.