Mass violence, dubbed by some as even “urban warfare,” has erupted in Togo over the last few days (See Gateway Pundit’s coverage here and some pictures here. Opposition Bob-Akitani has responded to the heavily flawed polls by declaring himself president to his supporters.

Togo’s opposition presidential candidate has declared himself president with 70% of the vote, despite official results giving him only 38%.

“We must fight with our lives if necessary,” Bob Akitani said, claiming the poll was rigged in favour of Faure Gnassingbe, the former leader’s son.

Security forces have again fired teargas at his supporters who erected and burned barricades in the streets.

Earlier, regional observers gave the poll a clean bill of health.

But the opposition has been collating the data from its agents who were at the polling stations, and says these prove Mr Akitani won all the most populous regions of the country.

According to provisional results from the electoral commission Mr Akitani – the main opposition candidate – got 38% of votes cast compared to 60% for the ruling RPT party candidate Mr Faure.

“Men and women of Togo, this is your president speaking,” Mr Akitani told journalists.

The opposition intends to appeal to the constitutional court which has still to confirm the result of the election.

Mr Akitani appealed to his supporters to stand firm, saying their strength was the determination of the people.

But it is difficult for him to get his message across to his supporters, correspondents say.

Local reporters were not at his press conference and the government closed down on Wednesday the local relay of Radio France Internationale and most of Togo’s private radio stations.

The government has warned the opposition that it will be held accountable for all violence in the capital. They are calling for a complete crackdown.

Togo’s interim government warns that security forces will detain all those acting illegally in the wake of increasing violence following controversial elections Sunday. Clashes involving angry opposition militants have already killed at least 20 people, but some residents say the number could be much higher.

In a speech on state television, interim leader Abass Bonfoh said he was asking all security forces to arrest those who go against the rule of law and order.

He also said any self-proclamation of being president by a losing candidate was “pure fantasy, null and void.”

Meanwhile, the State Department has agreed that the elections were flawed.

Washington, Apr 28: The US today said the legitimacy of Togo’s presidential elections “fell short of the aspirations of both the Togolese people and the expectations of Togo’s friends in the international community”.

“In particular, we would note irregularities in voter registration and voter card distribution prior to the election, and on election day, flaws in voting procedures that raise serious questions about the accuracy of the provisional vote totals which were announced yesterday,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said.

Ereli continued: “The United States joins the African Union and the economic community of West African states in calling for the formation of a national reconciliation government in Togo in which all the principal political forces in the country participate.”

The goal of such a government, or the purpose of such a government, he said, would be to heal the political divisions in Togo created by this election process and to focus on constitutional reform and on an electoral code that would allow for fully credible, transparent and free elections in the future.

“We also take this opportunity to remind everybody involved in the process,” said Ereli, “that violence is not a solution. It is not the answer to this problem. All political leaders in Togo have a responsibility to ensure that their supporters remain calm and avoid violent confrontations.”

One thing I want to bring up now, amid all this violence, is the possibility of an inter-tribal conflict in Togo. A comment from a Togolese expat that was left in my first post this week highlights this.

It????????s a bit more complex than just the people versus the dictator????????s kid – like so much of Africa, there????????s a tribal element as well. The majority of the Togolese population are members of the Ewe tribe. Eyadema was a Kabye from the north of the country. Most of the army and police are also Kabye. There????????s quite a real chance that this could turn into a civil war between numerically superior Ewes and militarily trained and equipped Kabyes, with the usual atrocities from both sides. If it did come down to this, there is some chance of ghana becoming involved as well, since there is a large Ewe population in that nation too. The Olympio family has a great deal of support among the Ghanaian Ewes.

What will happen when the results are announced? I don????????t know. It may turn out to be as bad as Liberia. I hope and pray it does not.

There are two major stories regarding Ghana and Togo at the moment. The first is that as soon as the election results were announecd, Togolese soldiers fired across the border.

Aflao, April 27, GNA – Three people were injured when Togolese soldiers fired across the Ghana/Togo frontier at Aflao shortly after the declaration of the results of the presidential election on Tuesday. Mr King Kosmos 28, an artisan and two basic school pupils, Linda Donu, 10 and Mabel Ahedor, 13 are on admission at the Aflao District Government Hospital.
…
Ghanaian order security officials told the GNA that Togolese soldiers shot into a crowd of Ghanaians who hooted at them from Aflao, wounding the three.

The officials said the crowd had ignored cautions from Ghanaian security personnel on patrol duties to avoid getting close to the wire fence in view of the security risk involved.

Kosmos, one of the victims, however, denied any hooting incident, saying he was in the area playing games with friends when he was hit. The Togo side of the border remained closed.

Ghana has been officially trying to distance itself from the incident, however, saying that it is not ready for refugees.

The minister for information, Mr Daniel Kweku Botwe, has stated that it would be unwise and unfortunate for anyone to expect Ghana to put up measures to accommodate refugees from neighbouring Togo whilst efforts are being made to compel the contesting parties to accept the outcome of the election.

He said the best thing would be to wish for an incident-free and fair election that will see the election of a president who will be acceptable by all.

Mr Botwe said this yesterday when the paper enquired from him to know whether the Government was expecting any influx of refugees from Togo owing to the fact that the opposition in that country has promised hell fire if Mr Faure Gnassigbe is declared the winner of the election.

He told the paper that it is the hope of the Government that the people in Togo accept the outcome of the election as a true reflection of the will of the people and allow peace to prevail in the entire sub-region, stressing, ???????we can only hope that sanity prevails in the country.???????

But so far it looks like sanity does not prevail on either side, and if people try to pull Ghana into the violence or refugee situation, they may not be able to halt the momentum. Already, Benin is unable to control hundreds of refugees already fleeing the country.

COTONOU, April 27 (Reuters) – Hundreds of people have fled from southern Togo into neighbouring Benin after youths and security forces clashed in the town of Aneho, Togolese residents and a police official in Benin said on Wednesday.

The violence came after the son of Togo’s former authoritarian ruler was declared the winner of a weekend presidential election — triggering riots in the capital Lome in which at least 10 people have already been killed.

The police official in Benin, who did not want to be named, said around 600 people had already crossed the border.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in Cotonou said people were still arriving on Wednesday although they did not have exact numbers.

The head of a private radio station in Aneho, 45 km (28 miles) from Lome, said opposition youths attacked the police headquarters and mayor’s house after the election victory of Faure Gnassingbe, son of former president Gnassingbe Eyadema.

“The security forces retaliated and several people were injured by bullets and people were also killed but I don’t know how many because I had to cross the frontier after the security forces wrecked my radio station,” the station owner said. (Additional reporting by John Zodzi)

At this point, nobody really knows what is going to happen.