3,500 FLEE TO TOGO (LEAD STORY, MAY 26, 2010)

Story: Benjamin Glover

THOUSANDS of displaced people are said to have fled the conflict zone in northern Ghana and crossed over into temporary shelters in northern Togo.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which confirmed the exodus to Ghanaian officials, did not quote figures, but a BBC report said Togo's Security Minister, Colonel Mohammed Atcha Titikpina, had put the latest figure at 3,500.
The Chairman of the Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC), Mr Mark Woyongo, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the seriousness of the matter had been brought to his attention by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).
He said he received the information from the Deputy National Co-ordinator of NADMO before a NADMO delegation left for northern Togo following reports received from the UNHCR of the presence of some displaced Ghanaians in Togo.
Mr Woyongo, who is also the Upper East Regional Minister, however, insisted that the situation in Togo had nothing to do with the Bawku crisis but could be linked to the conflict in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo District which recently claimed four lives and displaced about 3,768 people.
According to the BBC report, Ghanaians fleeing to northern Togo to escape unrest at home had become a regular occurrence in the last few days.
It said the displaced people, consisting mainly of women, children and young people who started arriving in Togo last week, were victims of ethnic conflict and land disputes in some parts of the Northern Region.
The report said Togolese officials, led by Colonel Titikpina, had paid a visit to the displaced people who were currently in temporary shelter camps set up in Tandjouare in northern Togo.
Colonel Titikpina was quoted as saying, "We have come in the name of the government of Togo to express our sympathies and solidarity with our Ghanaian brothers and sisters.”
"Our immediate task is to find the resources to provide these refugees with emergency relief supplies, security, feeding, clothing and temporary rehabilitation structures," he said.