July 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, has traveled to the north of the country to assess the situation after a week of violence that began with the death of seven children in the city of Margba in a bombing carried out by mistake and continued with a series of Jihadist attack on Thursday that would have left around fifteen people dead, according to local sources.
“Togolese families have lost children and parents in the tragic events of recent days in northern Togo, specifically Tône and Kpendjal,” the president said in a message posted on his Twitter account.
“In these moments of affliction, I reaffirm my determination to fight against terrorism, in order to protect our populations and guarantee peace and tranquility throughout the territory,” he added.
Thursday’s was the fourth terrorist incursion in the north of the country, the third in the northeast, and spread to several towns in the Kpendjal prefecture, which borders Burkina Faso to the north and Benin to the east.
The death toll, provided by local sources to the Le Clik portal, has not been officially confirmed.
Togo was relatively spared until recently from the jihadist violence that has devastated its northern neighbor, Burkina Faso, and other countries in the Sahel region for most of the last decade.
The Togolese government declared a state of emergency in the region in June after an attack on an outpost in Kpékpakandi left eight Togolese soldiers dead and thirteen others wounded.
The Sahel area in particular, and now increasingly the Gulf of Guinea, have become a priority for Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates operating in the region, especially in Burkina Faso, which has seen an increase significant number of attacks since 2015.
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