A man has been reported dead while two more seriously injured during confrontations between villagers at Gelegele, East New Britain Province.
ENB provincial police commander, Joseph Tabali, said the fight, which started on Saturday, May 26th, ended yesterday (May 28th). It stemmed from frustrations by villagers who were subject to continuous harassment by youths from the neighbouring village of Nodup.
“Yesterday morning (May 28) an adult male from Malakuna number 4 was seriously wounded,” said Tabali.
“We were looking for (Nodup) suspects when he was attacked from behind.
“He was rushed to the Vunapope General Hospital but died because of loss of blood.”
The deceased, who was in his 40s, was from Ratongor and Watam but had been living at Malakuna 4 (Mal4), which is near Gelegele.
“He had multiple slash wounds to his arms,” said the PPC.
“In retaliation, people from Mal4 and Takabur wounded 2 men from Nodup.
“They were rushed to the Vunapope hospital but because of the situation there, we did not want them to be killed at Vunapope so we escorted them to Nonga emergency ward.”
The two men were slashed on their shoulders and hands with bush knives.
Situation is currently tense on ground while leaders of both parties will be meeting at the police provincial headquarters at Ralum today.
The police boss said this weekend’s clash was a result of the constant harassment that Mal4 students from the Waterhouse Memorial Primary School get from Nodup youths.
Apart from students, women and children also get harassed along the Mal4 to Gelegele road. This was the reason why the host community is calling for those who have resettled there to go back to the original Nodup.
Police are currently monitoring the situation and are calling on residents to let them deal with the issue.