Togolese flee poll violence
2005-04-28 21:28
Aneho - Hundreds of frightened Togolese were on Thursday fleeing post-election unrest that has claimed about 30 lives nationwide since Faure Gnassingbe was officially proclaimed the winner of last week's poll.
An AFP correspondent in this tiny town on the border shared with eastern neighbour Benin saw entire families teetering under the weight of household items they carried in their arms and on their heads as they made their way across the lagoon separating the two Atlantic coastal countries.
"We are trying to cross the border as fast as we can, because in the coming hours the country risks plunging into a bloodbath," said Jacqueline as she climbed aboard a small boat.
"We'd rather go to Benin, even if we don't know anyone there."
Most of the fleeing refugees, so far numbering about 3 000 in Benin according to one western diplomat, are from the capital Lome.
Lome is the epicentre of clashes between opposition supporters and security forces that erupted after Tuesday's announcement that Gnassingbe won the April 24 election.
By mid afternoon on Thursday up to 700 people had departed Aneho, which has seen its own tensions manifest in confrontations with security forces that sent oily plumes of black smoke spiralling into the air a day earlier.
At least eight people died in the violence on Tuesday and Wednesday, and barricades effectively cutting off the southwestern town remained in place on Thursday.
Backers of opposition candidate Emmanuel Akitani Bob, who garnered 38% of the vote on behalf of a coalition of six parties, alleged widespread fraud in the balloting.
Akitani Bob stoked their indignation further with a proclamation on Wednesday that he was Togo's new president, warning that his supporters may have to sacrifice their lives to ensure his ascension.
Togo's borders have been officially closed, though border officials in both Ghana and Benin are trying to tabulate the numbers and identities of those people trying to cross.
The passage point at Aflao, on the coast next to Ghana's Volta region, has seen sparse pedestrian traffic, said Thomas Albrecht, commissioner for the UN high commission on refugees (UNHCR) in Ghana.
"As of now there hasn't been any serious influx (of Togolese refugees)," he told AFP in the Ghanaian capital Accra, alluding to the nearly 400 people who had been counted by UNHCR as of Wednesday.
"It's not an upsurge that warrants panic."