Overnight attacks in northern Togo ‘more dramatic than we imagined’: Government spokesman

Overnight attacks in northern Togo ‘more dramatic than we imagined’: Government spokesman

‘Perhaps we need to … collaborate more with the security forces and multiply initiatives,’ says Kodah Ayewouadan

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - There have been many casualties during raids in several villages in the Kpenjal prefecture, in northern Togo overnight Thursday, a government spokesman said Friday.

"I am able to confirm that during the night of yesterday to today, our country was again subject to multiple incursions in the far north," Kodah Ayewouadan told radio station Kanal FM after media reports said an attack left 15 dead between Thursday and Friday. "There is talk of at least 10 dead and other figures put the death toll at around 15. It's even more dramatic than we imagined. Perhaps we need to pull ourselves together, try to move forward together, collaborate more with the security forces and multiply initiatives to help this government to protect us better.”

The area attacked was inhabited by civilians and is not a position of the defense and security forces, according to authorities.

"A sweep is currently underway," he added.

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe wrote on Twitter that families lost children and parents in recent "tragic events" in northern Togo, specifically Tone and Kpendjal.

He reaffirmed his determination to fight terrorism and ensure peace for the population.

Togo, once spared from terrorism, has been in a tense security situation since November after an initial attack was repelled.

In May, militants carried out a deadly raid in the north where eight soldiers were killed and 13 seriously wounded. An Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group claimed responsibility three weeks later, according to the Site Intelligence Group, an American NGO that tracks extremist threats online.

The army acknowledged Thursday that it killed seven children in an air strike. The children were mistaken for a terror group in Dapong in the Savanes region, which has been in a "state of security emergency" since mid-June.

In 2018, an anti-terror operation was launched that has prevented countless tragedies and kept the borders impervious with the help of the population, but terrorists have managed to infiltrate, according to Ayewouadan.


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