Organising resilience on a local level

Northern Togo  

Since 2023, violent attacks and raids are recurrent in the Savannah region in northern Togo. Bordering with Burkina Faso, towns and villages have seen jihadist groups like JNIM crossing into Togo since 2023. The government in the capital on the coast is absent, unable to effectively protect citizens or even putting at risk the inhabitants by their responses. The people of the Savannah region thus must rely on themselves and each other to survive.

Emergency response workshop

In the summer of 2025, the attacks intensified. To help local communities respond and act during the unpredictable and chaotic raids, the Association des Jeunes Engagés pour l’Action Humanitaire (AJEAH) in Togo organized a first response seminar for young women from the region. Eleven people from villages in the border region were invited to talk about their personal experiences with the violent raids in their villages. During the seminar, they received a theoretical and practical training and covered fundamental rights, nonviolent action methods and rapid mobilization techniques. Every participant developed a concrete action plan that was adapted to their own village and circumstances. The swiftly organized training was meant to immediately respond to the intensified violence. The participants left with tools to mobilise other youngsters and strengthen the resilience of their communities back home.

After the workshop, a secure communication network was set up between the participants to rapidly share information between them. AJEAH is keeping close contact with the villages as well, monitoring and evaluating the action plans and their implications, ready to help out where needed.

Follow up

In the long term, AJEAH wants to develop this network. They are aiming to expand the number of participants in future workshops and be able to provide more financial means to react more quickly in emergency contexts. By developing a Citizen Lab, they want to consolidate and expand the local network of trained activists. Furthermore they want to create more visibility for their actions and spread awareness across Togo and beyond about the security situation in the Savannah. Eventually, they want to intensify efforts with local and national authorities to make sure the safety of the inhabitants of the border area is taken into account by the government.

The objective is thus to transform this first workshop organized with the help of Het Actiefonds into a structured and sustainable process, capable of strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities in the Savannah region and of perpetuating the civic engagement of women and young activists. Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this first workshop, and will stand in solidarity EJEAH in their efforts to consolidate this resilience network!