BAWKU, Ghana—The good news according to Salifu Bashru , an elder of the Mamprusi people, is that if al Qaeda militants attack, they’ll probably kill his rivals from the Kusasi community first. The bitter, 65-year dispute between Mamprusi and Kusasi over which ethnic group rules this small northern Ghanaian city has turned deadly in recent months, with neighbors exchanging machine-gun fire and each side vowing never to let the other get its way.

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