Background
Until the early 2020s, Togo was a stable and secure nation, but later, due to the jihadist insurrection in Burkina Faso which brought much instability to the border, it also became one of the fronts of the War in the Sahel. [4] The first ever jihadist attack in Togo dates back to 13 November 2021, when unidentified gunmen attacked a border post in the canton of Koundjoaré in the Prefecture of Kpendjal, in the far north of Togo along the border with Burkina Faso, without causing casualties. [5]
Start of the insurgency
Between May 10 and 11, 2022: a group of armed militiamen mounted on motorcycles, estimated to number around sixty, crossed the border and attacked a security force post in the canton of Koundjoaré, engaging in a firefight that lasted until dawn. While rushing to the scene of the clash, a rapid reaction force of Togolese soldiers was hit by an improvised explosive device planted by the jihadists along the road, resulting in a total of eight dead and ten wounded among the Togolese troops. [6] After the state of emergency was declared in June across the region, on July 11 Togolese aircraft mistakenly bombed a group of civilians near the village of Margba, mistaking them for a convoy of militiamen, killing seven people and wounding two others. [7] On July 14, night raids by jihadist groups against two Togolese villages on the border with Burkina Faso, later claimed by JNIM, caused between 12 and 20 civilian casualties. [8] Between 18 and 19 July 2 soldiers were killed in clashes with jihadists. [9] On November 28, when armed militiamen engaged Togolese troops near the town of Tiwoli in the northeastern corner of Kpendjal Prefecture, resulting in the deaths of at least ten soldiers. [10] On April 20, 2023, JNIM claimed responsibility for an attack in neighboring Tône Prefecture that killed six civilians. [11]
Russian involvement
To counter the jihadist threat, Gnassingbé turned to Russia. At the end of 2022, an agreement signed between the governments of Lomé and Moscow resulted in the transfer of three Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters and two Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters to the Togolese Air Force, making Russia the leading supplier of arms to Togo, surpassing the country's traditional partners such as France and the United States. [12] Russian-Togolese defense cooperation was subsequently further expanded, and in February 2024, a contingent of 30 Russian military advisors arrived in Togo to assist in the training of the local armed forces.
Escalation
On 20 July 2024, JNIM claimed responsibility for a bloody attack on a Togolese army barracks near the border with Burkina Faso: the attack, the bloodiest action in a year, caused the death of twelve soldiers. [13] After several weeks of respite, a serious attack occurred on the night of October 1–2 near the village of Fanworgou, in the north of the country: JNIM militants attacked a Togolese army patrol with explosive devices and light weapons. [14] The patrol was protecting the excavation of a series of trenches built along the border with Burkina Faso to hinder the cross-border movements of jihadist groups. The attack killed 19 people, including nine Togolese soldiers and ten civilians, mostly employees of the company responsible for digging the trenches. [15] According to local sources, two Turkish soldiers, part of a military training and advisory mission active in Togo since 2021, were also killed in the attack. [16] On the night between 25 and 26 October, an unclaimed attack attributed to JNIM caused the death of eight Togolese civilians in the village of Malgbangou. [17]
War crimes
The JNIM rebels committed expensive war crimes, targeting civilians in many occasions. On 28 November 2023, President Gnassingbé released an official statement detailing a list of attacks that had occurred since the beginning of the year, including one ambush, eleven firefights with armed terrorist groups, and nine attacks with improvised explosive devices, with a total of 31 deaths (including 11 civilians), 29 wounded, and three missing; the total death toll since the first clashes in November 2021 was given as 140 deaths, including 100 civilians. [20] These attacks forced, Togolese civilians in the Prefecture of Kpendjal to leave their villages and take refuge in larger population centers. [21] In February 2023, Benin authorities announced that nearly 750 Togolese refugees had fled across the Beninese border to escape jihadist violence. [22]
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