About
"fifteen assailants"
were killed by Togolese soldiers during an attack perpetrated last week in northern Togo during which eight soldiers died, the government announced on Wednesday evening May 18.
Read alsoPresidential in Togo: when the law of the most "Faure" reigns over the country
On the night of May 10 to 11, around 60 armed men riding motorbikes attacked a military post in Kpinkankandi, in northern Togo, near the border with Burkina Faso, killing eight Togolese soldiers and injuring thirteen others. , according to a report released last week by the government.
"By well-informed sources, there (were) about fifteen dead in the group of assailants"
, said Wednesday evening the Togolese Minister of Security, General Damehame Yark, on national television.
The attackers
"quickly transported the bodies to the other side of the border where they were buried"
, he added, without giving further details.
This is, according to the government, the first deadly
“terrorist”
attack in Togo, where the army is deployed in the north to face the threat of a spillover of violence from jihadist groups present in neighboring Burkina Faso. .
Togo had recorded only one attack in November 2021. A recent series of border raids in countries south of the Sahel confirmed fears that jihadist groups in the region are seeking to advance towards the coast.
Read alsoTogo reopens its land borders after two years of closure
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are struggling with jihadist insurgencies and neighboring states such as Ghana, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire are worried about spillovers at their borders.
In February, Benin has already paid the price after the death in the north of nine people, including a Frenchman, in three homemade bomb attacks, the deadliest in the country.
