Deadly clashes in Nimba

-As ERU deploys troops

There are reports of two deaths following violent clashes in two villages in District #4 of Nimba County, our correspondent say. The Emergency Response Unit of the Liberia National Police or ERU has deployed forces in Beeplay and Luaplay Towns, following the mob violence that resulted to the two deaths.  

Tension is reportedly brewing in both towns as a result of the incident with villagers escaping their homes and going into the bushes for safety following the bloody clashes. The violence erupted Tuesday, 24 February after a 32 years old tablets seller, Emmanuel Duo, was allegedly mobbed to death by citizens of Luaplay Town.

Eyewitnesses told The NewDawn that villagers had accused the victim of involvement into ‘heart-man’ or ritualistic activities in the district. It was not established whether the deceased had ever been caught in such act, but report says the late Emmanuel had gone to sell his drugs when he was accused by some men of the town of involvement in ritualistic activities.

As a result of the accusation, citizens of Luaplay Town allegedly mobbed the victim to death.

The death news of the tablet boy, according to an eyewitness account, claimed the immediate attention of the deceased’s family, including  some youths of Beeplay, an adjacent town, who allegedly entered Luaplay Town and mobbed another man to death, bringing the death toll to two with the victims left lying in cool blood.

This paper  also gathered that the identity of the victim, who was mobbed to death by angry men from Beeplay Town is Junior Dahn.

However, it has not been established whether the late Dahn was among those residents of Luaplay Town, who allegedly mobbed the late Emmanuel Duo to death for suspected ritualistic activities.

Villagers of both towns are said to be hiding in the bushes with the ERU forces deployed in the abandoned towns.

Meanwhile, the police had reportedly made no arrest up to press time.

Nimba County is noted for bloody violence. The county was used as launching pad for Charles Taylor’s rebel invasion of Liberia on December 25, 1989 with many of its young men and women recruited into the NPFL rebels that eventually captured and murdered the Dictator Samuel Kanyon Doe.

Rampaging youths of the county last year vandalized facilities of the mining company, ArcelorMittal, in demand of incentives and social development.

By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba