According to a minister, over 15 assailants were slain in a “terrorist” strike last week in Togo’s north that also killed eight soldiers.
Togo’s forces are stationed in the north of the country to combat a jihadist threat emanating from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants operate.
The government reported at the time that some 60 gunmen on motorbikes conducted a “violent terrorist attack” on a military base in Kpinkankandi, near the Burkina Faso border, killing eight Togolese soldiers and wounded 13.
General Damehame Yark, Togo’s security minister, claimed on Wednesday evening that “according to well-informed sources, roughly 15 people were killed in the group of attackers.”
On national television, Yark added, “(The attackers) soon took the bodies across the border where they were buried.”
Soldiers had repulsed an attack in the northern village of Sanloaga in November of last year, but this week’s attack was the first to result in casualties.
Armed organizations and criminal networks are increasing their violence across West Africa.
During a conference of West African defense leaders earlier this month, Ghanaian defence minister Dominic Nitiwul said that over 5,300 terror-related assaults have occurred in the region in the last three years, killing around 16,000 lives.
The European Union has expressed worry over the rise in violence.
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Togo incident “shows that the terrorist threat is increasing” to Gulf of Guinea coastline countries.
“Efforts to stop it before it’s too late must be redoubled,” Borrell cautioned.
