- 10 November 2025
As part of its support to the Togolese government to strengthen the protection of civilian populations in the north of the country against the risk posed by explosive devices, including Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), implemented several activities, from 2 to 23 October 2025, to strengthen the capacities of the Emergency Program for Resilience and Security in Communities (PURS) and the Togolese Armed Forces (FAT). Support was provided through the EU-UN Global Terrorism Threats Facility (the Facility), in partnership with and thanks to the financial support of the European Union (EU).
1. Raise awareness among local populations
In order to protect local populations, it is essential that they be made aware of the risks posed by improvised explosive devices. To this end, from 2 to 17 October, the Facility and UNOPS organized two five-day training-of-trainers sessions on how to conduct awareness sessions on the dangers of explosive devices differentiated for adults and children. Two cohorts of 15 representatives from the FAT, PURS, and the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Fight against Violent Extremism (CIPLEV), were trained including on using picture boxes as a support to sensitize the communities.
Nine of these trainers then traveled to the north of the country from 19 to 26 October to conduct six awareness-raising sessions with 197 community relays, who will in turn be able to practice the use of these picture boxes. Nearly 460 picture boxes were delivered to PURS to support future awareness-raising operations.
2. Improve IED incident tracking and analysis
As armed terrorist groups increasingly use IEDs against civilian populations and Togolese armed forces deployed in the north of the country, it is essential to accurately monitor incidents involving IEDs and analyze the evolution of this threat in order to inform and adapt operational responses. To this end, from 13 to 17 October, the Facility deployed an expert to Lomé to support the FAT in setting up an IED information management cell within the General Staff, responsible for collecting information sent by the armed forces deployed in the north and analyzing the evolution of the threat. The support provided by the expert consisted of training the cell's members on the implementation of the technical solution developed jointly with the FAT.
Following this training, an IED expert traveled to the north of the country from 18 to 21 October to train four Togolese IED specialists on how to write IED incident reports, which will be inform to the database managed in Lomé. The next step will be to advise on the production of analysis reports for the national authorities.
3. Equipment delivery
In addition to its advisory and training activities, on 23 October, UNOCT officially handed over equipment to the FAT, in the presence of representatives from the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Togo and the European Union delegation in Togo. This batch of equipment consisted of Information Technology equipment to operationalize the IED information management cell, and educational materials needed to raise awareness of IED risks, tailored to adults and children. In addition, at the end of October, 60 mine detectors will be delivered to the FAT. The total cost of all this equipment is around USD 200,000.
