The attack on Thursday morning targeted a bus carrying mostly women on their way to a local market and escorted by police, because of the tensions, in Pusiga district near the volatile Bawku area of Ghana’s Upper East Region.

Pusiga district chief Zubeiru Abdulai, a local mayor, told AFP that the nine victims died from gunshot wounds when their bus was ambushed near a remote forest close to the border with both Burkina Faso and Togo.

“The vehicle was occupied by mostly women and was being escorted by the police due to the volatile situation in Bawku,” he said.

“The police are investigating the incident now and it will be difficult for me to establish the main reason behind the attack.”

Police did not immediately respond to calls seeking more details on the attack.

Ghana’s Upper East Region has struggled with a decades-long conflict between ethnic Kusasi and Mamprusi communities over the right to choose a new chieftain and land rights in the mostly Muslim Bawku region, where there is a heavy police and army presence.