Weeks after calitown.com first broke the story of an impending communal clash between Usumutong and Ediba communities in Abi LGA, Cross River Central, impeccable sources on the ground have confirmed that a full scale communal clash is presently playing out in the area.
On the line from the area, one source informed calitown.com that an Ediba man was matcheted and left for dead in the bush by men suspected to be from Usumutong. A search party comprising men from Ediba is said to have searched for and found the man in a pool of blood, nearing death. Hospital sources in the area confirmed to calitown.com that the man was indeed brought in with life threatening matchet cuts. “This situation is responsible for the reprisal attack” carried out by men suspected to be from Ediba.
While attempts have been made by government to check the escalation of this situation in the past, security experts are of the opinion that the latest hostilities are “an indictment of government’s half hearted approach to tackling the situation”, as one source put it. “For one, it is not enough to have government send security men to patrol the roads in the area, let government do something drastic so that those responsible for this ugly situation will be discouraged from perpetrating it”.
An ugly angle may have been added to the clash. Sources also say that men suspected to be from Ediba are thought to have in neighbouring Ugep, Yakurr LGA, inflicted matchet cuts on an Usumutong man, “to give the impression that Ugep people attacked the man and so widen the scope of the clash”, as a source put it.
While the situation is dire, government’s response is eagerly awaited.
