Togo silent as Burkina militants escalate northern attacks
Militants originating from Burkina Faso have intensified their attacks in northern Togo since the start of the year, while the Togolese government has remained largely silent about their covert advances, Arab News reported via AFP on August 19th.Â
In an effort to maintain troop morale, authorities in the small West African nation have refrained from releasing detailed statements or figures, even as the attacks mark a dangerous escalation since the first deadly strike in Togo in 2022.
In one of the few official acknowledgements, Foreign Minister Robert Dussey recently revealed that at least 62 people have been killed since January, more than double the death toll reported for all of 2023.
According to political analyst and writer Madi Djabakate, the limited media coverage stems from the government’s “policy of informational lockdown.”Â
Djabakate added that Togo’s High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication has “expressly forbidden journalists from mentioning the attacks or human or material losses, so as not to demoralise the troops engaged on the ground.”
Togo shares a border with Benin, which is also affected by violence spilling over from Burkina Faso. In April, 54 Beninese soldiers were killed in an attack claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin.
Across 2024, Burkina Faso became the deadliest country for “terrorism” in the world, with 1,532 victims, according to the Global Terrorism Index.Â
The surge of violence forms part of a wider escalation of Al-Qaeda-linked attacks across West Africa, where militant groups are tightening their grip on border regions.
Just across Togo’s border lies Burkina Faso’s Kompienga province, a base for JNIM, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. On the Togolese side, Kpendjal prefecture has been hardest hit by militant attacks, resulting in an unsecured frontier, noted by security specialist Mathias Khalfaoui.
Over the past year, this violence has spread beyond border regions.Â
Khalfaoui warned in a Konrad Adenauer Foundation study that the militants’ slow, steady advance has gone largely unnoticed, reaching Oti and South Oti districts since May 2024.
However, tackling this problem has proved challenging due to the economic circumstances of Togo’s north, the poorest and least developed part of the country, asserted Khalfaoui.
Togo has stationed around 8,000 soldiers in the north, while its defence budget has more than doubled in recent years.Â
The government has launched emergency aid initiatives, but according to Djabakate and Khalfaoui, the absence of robust state authority and regional cooperation means the crisis is unlikely to be resolved.
Arab News via AFP, Maghrebi.org
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