Togo’s security forces practiced a mock hostage-taking on Thursday in the nation’s capital, Lome, simulating a jihadist attack as the nation faces more and more threats.
The escalating spillover from jihadist militant battles across their northern borders in Niger and Burkina Faso is something that Togo and nearby West African coastal republics like Ghana, Benin, and Ivory Coast are bracing for.
In Lome’s Adidogome neighborhood on Thursday, a “commando” of police posing as six highly armed terrorists assaulted a restaurant called “Noudoudou-a-gnon,” opened fire, and kidnapped patrons.
The drill was overseen by two instructors from the French National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN).
Since Togo documented the first in a series of attacks in November 2021 and at least four more since then in its far-northern border region, it had only been a simulation exercise.
General Damehame Yark, the security minister of Togo, stated that the exercise was a part of “measures so that we can face this menace” in the area.
