Togo declares state of emergency in North after jihadist attack

Eight Togolese were killed in May in a northern town near the border with Burkina Faso, in an attack claimed by Mali-based Al-Qaeda militants.

The Mali-based Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) group had claimed responsibility for the attack in May. 

Officials had said at the time that eight Togolese soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded.

A senior security source in Togo told AFP the soldiers were attacked by a group of 60 gunmen who arrived on motorbikes. 

Togolese troops foiled an attack in November last year in the northern village of Sanloaga, making the May attack the first to cause casualties.

It said around 10 of its soldiers had been killed so far.

Benin’s first known fatal attack was last December, in which two soldiers were killed near the troubled frontier with Burkina Faso.