Togo
The military situation in Togo remains volatile owing to protests against the political and electoral system. This volatility has allowed weapons and ammunition trafficking to develop in the country and region, notably at the borders with Benin and Burkina Faso. In recent years, Togo has taken steps to improve ammunition stockpile management in the country.1
Actors working on the ground include the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); the Regional Centre on Small Arms in the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and Bordering States (RECSA); the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC); the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR); the Multinational Small Arms and Ammunition Group (MSAG); the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC); and the GICHD. Efforts have included organising national and regional training courses on weapons and ammunition management, destroying obsolete ammunition, providing assessments on ammunition management practices in the country, and presenting recommendations for programmatic and policy responses to inform the development of a national framework governing the management of ammunition.2
1 “Somalia,” UN Mine Action Service, accessed May 16, 2022, https://www.unmas.org/en/programmes/somalia; “Trafic d’Armes Au Togo: Ce Qu’Il Faut Craindre !” Togoweb, May 12, 2021, https://togoweb.net/togo-crimes-2021-trafic-darmes-au-togo-ce-quil-faut-craindre/; “A Tug of War in Togo over Term Limits and the Distribution of Power,” The Conversation, August 1, 2018, https://theconversation.com/a-tug-of-war-in-togo-over-term-limits-and-the-distribution-of-power-100731.
2 “Ammunition Management Activity Platform (A-MAP),” GICHD, 2022, https://a-map.gichd.org.
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Further information
Accidental explosions
Since the Small Arms Survey began collecting data in 1979, no accidental explosions have been reported in Togo.
Source: “Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS) Database,” Small Arms Survey, updated December 15, 2021, https://smallarmssurvey.org/database/unplanned-explosions-munitions-sites-uems.
Cases of diversion
Three cases of diversion have been reported in Togo since 2017.
Table 1. Cases of diversion of arms, ammunition and explosives in Togo since 2017
| Year | Location | Description |
| 2021 | Lomé | A hundred munitions were stolen from the 1st Bataillon d'Intervention Rapide (BIR). |
| 2020 | North Tongu | Police vehicles and an AK-47 were stolen during an attack on the Aveyime and Mepe police stations in the North Tongu district of the Volta region. |
2017 | Sokodé | Three assault rifles (type AKM 68) and munitions were stolen from a police station in Sokodé. |
Source: Kojo Emmanuel, “Video: Watch How Police Retrieved Stolen Firearms from Western Togoland Secessionist Group in the Bush,” Pulse Ghana, October 7, 2020, https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/video-watch-how-police-retrieved-stolen-firearms-from-western-togoland-secessionist/m8yzdrg; “Armes Retrouvées à Sokodé," République Togolaise, September 20, 2017, https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/faits-divers/armes-retrouvees-a-sokode; A. Severin, “Togo: Enquête Sur Les Munitions Disparues,” AllAfrica, March 29, 2021, https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202103290907.html.
Disposal
Insufficient information on the disposal of ammunition in Togo.
Needs
To further enhance safe and secure ammunition management, the following needs have been identified for Togo:
- Development or refinement of standards and procedures on stockpile management; and
- Capacity development for the destruction of surplus stockpiles (e.g. identification of obsolete ammunition).
Source: Togo, National Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (New York: Permanent Mission of Togo to the UN, 2022), https://unoda-poa.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/TGO-French-1233-SUBMITTED.pdf; "Needs Analysis Dataset," AMAT (Ammunition Management Advisory Team), 2022.
