Sepik student wounded in fight

By GABRIEL FITO
MORE than 400 students attending the remote Ambunti High School in East Sepik were sent home on Monday following a fight in the school last weekend.
Classes were suspended indefinitely as a result of a fight between  Grades 9 and 10 students and locals on Sunday morning.
A student is nursing multiple wounds to parts of his body at the Wewak General Hospital while a teacher, who attempted to stop the fight, had three of his fingers partly severed.
Ambunti-Dreikikir district administrator Otto Ganaii said the student, who was stabbed at the back of his neck down to the legs, was carried by other students up the Waskuk Hills, down to the Sepik River – covering almost 40km – where he was taken by a canoe to the Mafei Catholic health centre.
The student was examined and referred to Wewak General Hospital on Monday due to the seriousness of the injuries sustained.
Ganaii said the fight stemmed from an incident involving a security guard who was drinking with the school’s headmaster on Saturday night. The guard had demanded food from the students at the kitchen early on Sunday morning resulting in a scuffle between him and a student.
“This led to a tug of war between the two pulling a grass knife which inflict a cut on the security guard after the student managed to pull off the grass knife from him,” Ganaii said.
“He went home, mobilised a group of locals, and they returned and fought with the students resulting in one of them being seriously injured.
“This is a serious matter because the students must not be treated like this. This is not the first time the locals have attacked the students.
Ganaii said the matter was reported to police but they were still waiting for Central Sepik police boss Richard Rafa and his team to arrive at Ambunti.
Paul Gomio, a senior government officer at Ambunti, added: “They have been continually doing this for the last 10 years, they break into the ration store and steal food supplies, harass the students and teachers.”
Provincial education adviser Joseph Auli could not be reached for comment yesterday but government officers at Ambunti indicated that the school may remain shut for two weeks pending police investigation.