Togo army repels new attack in far north: official

• Gunmen clashed with Togo troops outside a military post in the Goulingoushi area.
• There were no deaths or wounded on the “Togo side”, the official said.
• In early May, eight Togolese soldiers were killed and 13 others injured in the first official deadly terrorist attack in Togo.

Togo army repelled another attack in the northwest near the border with Burkina Faso, a military official said on Thursday, A month after eight troops were killed in the region,

Jihadist groups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are growing and threatening to spill over into West African coastal states like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Togo.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, gunmen clashed with Togo troops outside a military post in the Goulingoushi area of Togo’s far northwest before being forced across the border, according to a military official.

Read More: Eight soldiers killed in attack in north Togo, government says

“It was one of our ambushes that surprised them outside the Goulingoushi post, in the far northwest,” he said.

There were no deaths or wounded on the “Togo side”, the official said.

The assailants “have retreated and the Burkinabe army is on their heels. The sweeps continue on our side,” he said.

On Monday, Togolese authorities declared a security “state of emergency” in the Savannah region in the far north to help better coordinate their military response.

In early May, eight Togolese soldiers were killed and 13 others injured in the first official deadly terrorist attack in Togo. About fifteen assailants were killed by the Togolese soldiers.

Read More: Bomb kills two peacekeepers in Mali: UN

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

Armed incursions from troubled Sahel nations by jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization have heightened fears of a southward push towards the Gulf of Guinea.