CHESS Resolves New Yourpea, Behwalay Conflicts

After months of bitterness between New Yourpea and Behwalay in Kparblee Administrative District, the locally based non-governmental organization, Community Health Education Social Services (CHESS), has resolved the dispute between the two towns thus restoring trust in them for each other.

Under the program, Dialogue to Overturn Violent and Enhance Peace, CHESS brought the two towns together following dispute over the brutal killing of one Lorina Daybah Sam by a woman from Behwalay in January 2021.

The reconciliation took a tense intervention by CHESS to accomplish, as the two parties had remained bitter against each other since the incident.

CHESS – DOVE – Peace program is funded by the UNDP, and its aim is to settle dispute in cross border communities.

“After tense mediation, we brought the citizens s of both towns together, where they agreed to stop any form of aggression against one another,” a statement from CHESS said.

“We also brought together the local leaders of both communities, including those at the district level to cement the relationship,” the group added.

In January this year the late Daybah was brutally murdered during a fist fight between her and a lover of her husband in Behwalay, consequently crackingthe relationship between the two towns. The perpetrator, who remains at large, is believed to have cross over to the Ivory Coast.

In retaliation, the citizens of New Yourpea vandalized Behwalay Town, setting a home of the alleged murderer ablaze and making away with several cattle.

Since the incident, citizens of Behwalay, especially pregnant women, have refused to attend New Yourpea clinic for fear of revenge.

“CHESS’s intervention enabled the two communities to bury their hatred for each other to live together as before,” noted J. Alexander Nya, Jr. the Executive Director.