The Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution has urged communities enmeshed in border disputes in Anambra State to toe the path of peace in resolving their crisis.

Anambra communities in Ayamelum Local Government Area have been embroiled in age-long boundary disputes, where security agents and indigenes have been feared killed.

Our correspondent gathered that the communities such as Omor, Igbakwu, Anaku, Umumbo, Umuerum, Ifite-Ogwari, Umueje and Omasi, have been involved in boundary crisis over the years.

Recently, a farmer in one of the communities was reportedly killed and his body parts were allegedly used for sacrifice to appease a deity of one of the communities, a situation that sparked a fresh crisis.

Addressing a stakeholders’ roundtable on the boundary dispute/conflict between the warring communities in Awka on Friday, the Director-General of IPCR, Dr Bakut Tswah Bakut, said a peaceful resolution to the conflict has become necessary because of its recurrent nature changing dynamics.

The meeting had in attendance traditional rulers, women leaders, opinion leaders, youth leaders, among others.

Bakut noted that the objective of the meeting was to find other natural means of addressing the conflict.

He lamented that the human and material losses as a result of the conflict, which had spanned over 100 years in some cases, has been enormous, unimaginable and embarrassing.

He said, “This is no longer acceptable, hence this very enlarged stakeholders meeting cutting across government officials, traditional rulers, town union/opinion leaders, women leaders, youth leaders, security agencies and other critical agencies is connected with finding solutions to such a hydra-headed conflict.”

The DG explained that the purpose of land was to make life easy, adding, “Why then should we want to die for land instead of using it for sustenance?