March 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A Ghanaian court has sentenced five alleged members of the separatist Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF), which seeks the secession of this area (east), on the border with Togo, to five years in prison.
The Accra High Court has indicated that the five suspects have been found guilty of participating in meetings of the group, outlawed in the country, delivering funds to the WTRF and participating in campaign events to promote its activities, as reported by the Ghanaian state agency of news, gna.
The Prosecutor’s Office has denounced during the process that the group carried out an attack in September 2020 in which several inmates were released and weapons were stolen from several agents on the highway that connects the capital with the city of Aveyime.
The Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF), a separatist group that has unilaterally proclaimed the independence of Western Togoland, distanced itself from the attacks and assured that its media are peaceful.
Western Togoland, essentially encompassing the strip of land between Lake Volta and Ghana’s border with Togo, was colonized by Germany in 1884 and incorporated into its colony of Togoland. After the defeat in the First World War, said colony was divided into two protectorates, one under the United Kingdom and another under France -as also happened with Cameroon-.
The western part was integrated into the British colony of the Gold Coast and in 1956 decided in a referendum to become independent along with this territory, constituting the current Ghana in 1957, while the French part obtained independence from France in 1960 and constitutes the current Togo.
