Gr11 teen left to die after fight between students and villagers

A MOTHER is mourning the loss of his teenaged son, a grade 11 at the Ialibu Secondary School, who was killed during a fight between students and Koromi villagers on Tuesday.
Ben Yando, 18, of Pakule village in the Imbonggu district in Southern Highlands, was badly injured and left to die near the town’s old airstrip. His body was found on Tuesday afternoon.
His mother Muniea Yando said she could not believe her son was dead.
She described him as her pride, joy and strength.
“I sent him to school. He was at school under the care of his teachers. It is hard to believe he is dead. He was easy-going and humble, he was my pride,” she said.
“I gave him K20 on Sunday. He said thank you to me and left for school. Now I have come to take his body home. My heart is broken.”
Yando said her son was not involved in the fight. His father is a pastor of the Bible Missionary Church. Everyone who knew him say my son was not the type to fight.
“He did not even carry a knife with him, He was a bystander who got killed.”
Yando said only a mother could understand the pain she felt as her son was her world.
“The authorities must look into the cause of my son’s death,” she said.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, said it was sad and “an unnecessary loss of life”.