Calm returns to Togo
2005-04-28 14:50
Lome - Tensions in Togo's capital Lome were easing on Thursday after clashes between security forces and opposition supporters that have left 22 people dead and more than 100 injured since last week's presidential poll.
Bulldozers swept away heaps of rubbish and tree trunks that had been wrested from the ground by supporters of Emmanuel Akitani Bob, who was defeated in the April 24 poll by ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe, the son of the West African state's late strongman Gnassingbe Eyadema.
Barricades erected a day earlier by security forces were also being pulled down, and traffic was circulating freely along the main southern roads of the seaside capital.
"We worked through the night to empty the city of the barricades," a weary military police officer said.
Opposition strongholds Be and Dekon remained on tenterhooks amid fears of more violence, stoked by an announcement on Wednesday from Akitani Bob declaring himself president.
Though the main throughways were clear, makeshift barricades erected by the opposition remained in the crowded side streets of the popular neighbourhoods.
"We are not afraid of the military; we will continue to fight," said one young agitator sitting comfortably astride a barricade, ignoring the police officers patrolling some distance away.
Akitani Bob, who was credited with less than 40% of the vote, charged that massive vote fraud denied him the presidency and warned his supporters they could have to sacrifice their lives to ensure his ascension.
His proclamation drew swift criticism from the Togo government, the regional 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), chaired by President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads up the African Union.
All pleaded for calm.
Gnassingbe, whose comfortable victory has yet to be confirmed by the constitutional court, has added his voice to pleas for calm and has joined the United States in calling for a national unity government.