LOME, July 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Togo officials on Saturday said several people were killed and others wounded when gunmen attacked four villages earlier this week in the country’s far north, where a jihadist insurgency is spilling over the border from Burkina Faso.
It was the fourth attack in Togo since last year as the West African country, Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast all face a growing threat from Islamist militants in the Sahel north of their borders.
“In the night between July 14 and 15, gunmen attacked the population as they slept in four locations in Kpendjal and Kpendjal-Ouest prefectures and killed several people, all civilians,” the government said in a statement.
Togo’s government had already reported the attack but had not given details on casualties.
Togo’s army said on Saturday gunmen carried out “coordinated and complex” raids on several villages in the area.
“This attack caused several deaths and a few injuries which were quickly taken care of by the first elements of the Togolese Armed Forces who arrived,” the army said in a statement.
Togolese media reports had said 10 to 15 people died.
In neighbouring BENIN, the government has said the country has suffered around 20 attacks by armed groups, in the first official tally released in May.
Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast among them have borders with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where jihadist campaigns by Islamic State or al-Qaeda affiliates have claimed thousands of lives and driven more than two million people from their homes.
Benin’s first known fatal attack was last December, when two soldiers were killed near the troubled frontier with Burkina.
Togo has declared a state of emergency in its far northern provinces to allow security forces more flexibility to operate.
Eight Togolese soldiers were killed in May in an assault claimed by a Mali-based alliance of Al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists.
Gunmen also clashed with Togo troops outside a military post in Goulingoushi area in Togo’s far northwest in June, before they were forced back across the border. — NNN-AGENCIES
