A military aviation apparatus had bombed a village in the north of the country on July 10, killing seven people. The army believed to put out of harm a contingent of jihadists, wrongly.
Le Monde with afp
The Togolese armed forces said on Thursday July 14, being responsible for a recent explosion that killed seven civilians and injured two others, after taking them for jihadists. The explosion occurred in the prefecture of Tône, near the border with Burkina Faso, where a Sahelian jihadist insurrection threatens to extend to the coastal countries of West Africa. Togolese troops are deployed in the area to try to contain an overflow of the jihadist threat.
In a statement on Sunday, the army said it had opened an investigation “to determine the circumstances of this explosion and identify the perpetrators.” The chief of staff of the Togolese armed forces, General Dadja Maganawe, concluded Thursday that a plane had wrongly targeted civilians.
“During the night of July 9 to 10, around 1:30 am, an explosion made several victims in the village of Margba, in the prefecture of Tône,” he said in a statement .
General Maganawe said that the army had received “concordant information to report threats to infiltration of armed bands wishing to carry out terrorist attacks” against local communities.
fatal precipitation
“Faced with the imminence of the danger,” he said, the commander leading an operation whose code name is Koundjoare “strengthened surveillance and land control of the indicated area”. “It was during these operations that a night patrol aircraft unfortunately targeted a group of people he has confused [with] a column of jihadists in motion,” said General Maganawe.
The Togolese armed forces expressed “their deep regret in the face of this drama”, and renewed “their sincere condolences to the grieving families” and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. General Maganawe added that the armed forces “will do everything to prevent the occurrence of this kind of drama in the future”.
Last month, Togo declared the state of emergency in its prefectures in the North due to the threat of Islamist attacks. Eight Togolese soldiers had been killed in May in an attack in the region.