Togo Officials Report Crushing Well-Armed Coup Attempt; 13 Die

Togolese troops and warplanes on Wednesday crushed an attempt to topple the government of President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the government and Western diplomats reported.

The government said at least 13 people were killed in the fighting, and 19 of the rebels were captured.

Among the dead were seven members of a heavily armed “terrorist commando unit” that entered Togo from Ghana on Tuesday and took on the security forces in an all-night street battle, the government said.

Six civilians also were killed, state-run Togolese radio reported. The West German Foreign Ministry said in Bonn that a German businessman was killed and another was wounded in the fighting.

Togo’s interior minister, Kpotivi Lacle, said that he had no information on the attackers’ nationalities or motives, but Western diplomats said they apparently were Togolese exiles trying to oust Eyadema’s Western-oriented government.

Has Brought Stability

Eyadema, who came to power in 1967, has brought a measure of stability to the small West African nation, the diplomats said.

The attack began soon after nightfall Tuesday as the commandos, armed with explosives, automatic weapons and rocket launchers, tried to overrun an army barracks and the headquarters of Eyadema’s party in the center of the city.

“They came nowhere near their objectives,” said a police official who requested anonymity.

One diplomat said that Togolese jets roared over the scene of the fighting and sporadic gunfire was heard through midday in Lome, the coastal capital on Ghana’s border.

Eyadema summoned Western diplomats Wednesday afternoon to show them weapons and vehicles used by the attackers, one of the diplomats said.

“This is a sad day for African unity,” the diplomat quoted the president as saying.

Reportedly From Ghana

The government said the attackers came from Ghana, but there was no official attempt to accuse the leftist Ghanaian government, headed by Flight Lt. Jerry J. Rawlings, of helping or encouraging the coup attempt.