BENIN-TOGO: Hundreds of young men still seeking asylum

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

COTONOU, 27 May 2005 (IRIN) - More than 700 refugees from Togo, mostly young men fearing persecution as opposition supporters, have registered with UN officials in Benin's capital in the last two days, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.

“(They) are young opposition activists, or people believed to be in the opposition, who say there are still people going missing or being kidnapped at nights," UNHCR official Julie Leduc told IRIN in Cotonou.

Since the 24 April presidential election that brought Faure Gnassingbe to office, a total of 34,416 people have fled across Togo’s borders to Benin and Ghana, the UNHCR said.

The exiles, along with human rights groups and diplomats, say the exodus is due to a continuing crackdown against the opposition, which has described Gnassingbe’s election as a fraud. The new president stepped into the shoes of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled Togo for 38 years.

In Geneva, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said at a press briefing that “the refugees cite abductions and disappearance in parts of the country which support the opposition as the reason for their flight."

"According to the refugees, security forces carry out searches at night in Lome, Aneho, Atakpame and other parts of the country where there is opposition support, creating a climate of fear," he said.

Back in Cotonou, a Togolese man, one in a long line of people waiting to register at the UNHCR office, told IRIN that it was the second time in his life he had been forced to flee persecution.

“When I was a child my parents fled with me to Benin,” said Leon Kouassi, a 20-year-old secondary school student. “Today here I am again. Am I going to have to flee here in the future with my children. Will all this ever stop?”

“A manhunt is still on in Togo. In the daytime everything’s quiet, but at night people go house to house to pick us up and then it’s all over, no more news," said Kouassi, who is from Lome.

Opposition support is strongest among the Ewe-speaking people in the south while the Eyadema clan draws most of its support from the Kabiye ethnic group in the north.

Leduc of UNHCR Benin told IRIN that between 25 and 200 people were still coming over the border daily and that 19,272 people had so far been registered as refugees.

Of those, 1,378 people are at the Come refugee camp, which opened on 28 April and is now at saturation point. The other camp at Lokossa, which opened two days later, is already nearing its 5,500 capacity, with 5,243 refugees living there.

Benin has appealed for US $5 million dollars to help it assist the refugees, many of them living with friends and family. An African Union team in Cotonou on Friday handed the authorities US $30,000 to help.

The previous day the AU gave the same amount to Ghana on Togo's western flank. No new arrivals have been reported there and to date 15,144 Togolese refugees have been registered, who live with friends, family or under the hospitality of local communities.

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