State of emergency extended in northern district

The Ghanaian parliament on Monday approved a fourth extension - for four weeks - of a state of emergency and curfew in northern Ghana's Dagbon traditional area, whose king and 29 other people were killed in March, state radio reported on Monday. Moving the motion in parliament, Acting Minister of the Interior Kwame Addo-Kufuor said rumours and suspicions were still rife in the conflict zone and had the potential of igniting further trouble. Professionals such as nurses, doctors and shift workers in the water and electricity sectors would be granted special passes to operate during curfew hours, he said. The curfew was maintained at 2100 GMT to 0500 GMT, although opposition parliamentarians had wanted it reduced to 2200 - 0430 GMT. The area under the state of emergency includes the town of Yendi, whose king was killed on 27 March during an attack on his palace, suspected to have been perpetrated by members of a rival clan. It also includes Tamale, Ghana's third largest town, and as far east as the Togolese border. Opposition parliamentarians had called for it to be limited to Yendi district. [For more on the Yendi issue]