Hunger drives displaced women home despite fears

Frightened women and children who fled Togo’s main central town of Atakpame due to post-election violence are beginning to trickle home because relatives in the villages can no longer support them. Thousands of opposition supporters fled this lush hillside town when large-scale protests against a disputed presidential poll degenerated into street fighting and violence more than five weeks ago. Those who left feared persecution by security forces and government partisans. Most have not come back. Humanitarian workers say the men in general left the country to escape a continuing crackdown, leaving the women and children to beg their existence from relatives or friends in villages in the surrounding forest. But across West Africa, the lean season has started and food stocks are running too low to feed extra mouths. "It's tough in the village. Finding enough food for me and my five children at this time of year is difficult," said one middle-aged widow called Amy. She fled to family but has felt compelled to return knowing her brother-in-law no longer had the means to support her. She is one of six women in flip-flops and headscarves just returned from nearby villages. Those who have husbands do not know where they are, although each suspects he is among the more than 35,000 refugees exiled in neighbouring Benin or Ghana. A stream of people have been crossing Togo’s borders in the five weeks since the election, saying there is a manhunt on for opposition supporters. NGOs and UN agencies estimate 10,000 people were displaced nationally. But privately, UN officials acknowledge that gathering accurate information in the current climate of continued insecurity and fear is difficult. "We have identified 2,000 people in just ten villages around Atakpame and have begun distributing food parcels," said Seraphin Abokitse, head of the Catholic Church's Charity for Integrated Development Organisation (OCDI) in Atakpame.

Togolese refugees at the Benin border at Hilakondji

"Certainly there are more people that need support, but we are stretched to capacity," he said. Many of the displaced do not want to declare themselves even to village chiefs making it even more difficult to identify them. Trouble in Atakpame Atakpame, a busy urban centre 150 km north of the capital Lome, according to diplomats saw some of the worst violence in the country after the announcement that Faure Gnassingbe had been elected president in a poll the opposition said was rigged. Locals and humanitarian workers based in Atakpame estimate that more than 100 people died in the town of 300,000, although there has been no official count of bodies and hospital records have not been made public. "The people there [Atakpame] came out in force and resisted when the official result was announced, and as a result, the government came down on them hard," said one diplomat who asked not to be identified and who is convinced his telephone is tapped. Gnassingbe is the son of Gnassingbe Eyadema, who remained close to former colonial power France throughout the 38 years of his authoritarian rule that ended with his death on 5 February. During his reign, opponents were frightened into exile. Those that stayed behind ran the risk of execution by security forces, according to reports by human rights group Amnesty International.

Gnassingbe Eyadema gave gifts bearing his image to supporters

Gnassingbe junior is working hard to promote an image as a youthful moderniser - but residents of Atakpame say that the same old faces are running the show and continue to kill, beat and threaten known or suspected opposition supporters with impunity. Tony, a resident of Atakpame who is keeping a low profile for fear of arrest, says the trouble started on election day, 24 April. "Opposition supporters were gathering around the voting stations. They were convinced that the ballot was being rigged and started to demonstrate," Tony explained. According to Tony, the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) were giving out falsified proxy voting forms to inflate their count. He's kept one of the forms, blank but already validated by the local authorities, as proof. "The military and militia started to arrive to protect the people carrying out the fraud, so opposition supporters put up barricades to block the road," he said in a small and stiflingly hot backroom. Sweat rolled off him but he refused to talk in public in the cool of the compound courtyard. According to Tony, N'Ma Bilizim Kouloun, a retired major locally known as the "Eyadema of Atakpame" - because he is a nephew of the late President - led the way, firing on demonstrators and shooting a 12-year-old. "There's also this Lebanese guy, he's the RPT's main backer here. He provided the lorries to carry the militia from polling station to polling station to assist in the fraud," said Tony. "The people here talk too much," said the man himself, Karim Abbou. "This is wrong information." Yes, the opposition is scared Abbou describes himself as a Togolese of Italian origin who happens to speak Arabic, as well as several other languages. Two ten-foot banners proclaiming, "Vote for Faure Gnassingbe" are draped from what locals consider the RPT headquarters, though Abbou counters is his private residence and nothing more. "We have our members of the RPT - as there are members of the opposition - it's normal. But I don't understand this 'militia'. It's not that, never!" he said angrily. As for Kouloun, explained Abbou, he was out of town touring the region to encourage people to return in his capacity as "representative of the presidential executive". Abbou has no knowledge of any deaths in Atakpame. "Yes there was a lot of violence, but deaths - I didn't hear about that," said Abbou. According to Abbou, those that have fled were "thieves and bandits" frightened of punishment in accordance with Togolese law. "The opposition blocked the roads! They demonstrated and put houses on fire!" he said from beneath a wall clock that had an official portrait of his "good friend" Eyadema as its face. "So, yes they scared!" Abbou shouted. "They are scared, scared, scared! They did bad things. Of course they are scared". Amy, which is not her real name, admits she was scared. She fled after her teenage son was shot and killed. He was not part of the opposition demonstrations, she insists, he was just running errands. "I don't know what happened. I wasn't there. But he was shot and taken to the hospital. He died," recounts Amy as she wipes streams of silent tears from her eyes.