Hundreds of casualties in Togo stampede

At least 13 people were trampled to death and 216 hurt when a march welcoming a warming of ties between Togo and the European Union turned into a stampede as the crowd pushed towards the president’s residence in the hope of a handout of bank-notes, witnesses said. “We were all trying to get into the president’s residence, and the soldiers started pushing us back while the crowd at the back pushed forward, so those of us at the front fell down and that was how it all started,” a young student who gave only his name as Eric, told IRIN. The march, organized by political parties and groups close to President Gnassingbe Eyadema, brought hundreds of thousands of people spilling onto the streets of the capital last Saturday to celebrate the European Union’s decision to partially resume aid to Togo after an 11-year suspension. Demonstrations in support of the government have often wound up at the president’s home with a massive handout of bank-notes and those close to the front have a bigger chance of bringing home the spoils. “I went early to get a place at the front, because if they hand out notes you stand a better chance of a quick and bigger helping,” said Eric, who suffered an arm injury in the crush and had to have a chest X-ray to check for cracked ribs. Another youngster receiving treatment at Tokoin university hospital in Lome said he narrowly escaped death “because I play basketball and I had the right reflexes.” He refused to give his name. Government spokesman Pitang Tchalla said the organizers of the demonstration had underestimated the numbers who would turn out. The authorities said in a separate statement that President Eyadema had ordered an investigation into the tragedy. The weekly newspaper “AGNI l’Abeille” said the death toll was higher than reported by the government. It said its reporter had seen more than 30 bodies arrive at the morgue on Saturday. Men, women, traditional chiefs and religious leaders had turned out to cheer the partial restoration of EU aid, announced on 15 November in recognition of Eyadema’s move towards restoring democracy in the West African nation. But an EU spokesman told IRIN that development aid would only be fully restored when free and fair parliamentary elections were held. Eyadema, who came to power in a 1967 coup, has ruled Togo for 37 years and is Africa's longest serving head of state. He was re-elected last year in a poll from which his main challenger, the exiled opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, was excluded. “As of now, some projects such as decentralization projects for the promotion of the environment that had been stopped will resume,” Jean-Charles Ellerman Kingombe, an EU spokesman on humanitarian aid and development, told IRIN by phone from Brussels last week. ”As soon as all parties agree on an electoral framework and that elections are actually held, we will notify new funds for Togo and start planning on how to spend these funds,” Kingombe said. “The EU text is clear, the EU will only resume cooperation once clear and transparent legislative elections have taken place,” Yaovi Agboyibo, leader of the Action Committee for Renewal (CAR), one of Togo’s main opposition parties, told IRIN last week.