TOGO: Youths hurled rocks and set up blazing barricades in Togo's capital Lome yesterday after Faure Gnassingbe, son of the late authoritarian leader, was declared the winner of a presidential vote his rivals say was fixed.
Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky over the coastal city as riot police armed with stun grenades and rubber bullets fired tear gas and played cat-and-mouse with groups of furious opposition supporters.
Shops and businesses were looted, walls smashed and trees hacked down, crushing phone booths. A Chinese diplomat said his embassy had been attacked by youths who broke windows before stealing a motorcycle.
Sporadic gunfire rang out. A reporter saw three men being beaten by police officers and taken away as women at the scene wept.
"We are not happy. They've cheated us. Togo's not a kingdom," said Kabir, an unemployed man with a large knife and his face painted white to stop tear gas stinging his skin.
But in another part of the city, thousands of Gnassingbe supporters in a convoy of trucks celebrated their victory.
Mr Gnassingbe, whose father Gnassingbe Eyadema died in February after ruling the west African country for 38 years, won 60 per cent of the vote, according to provisional results announced by electoral commission chief Kissem Tchangai-Walla.
"Enough internecine quarrels, enough political quarrels. Now it's time for reconciliation and development," Mr Gnassingbe told reporters after his victory was announced. "We need to come together to rebuild our country."
"Faure or nothing. Faure or hell," yelled one Gnassingbe supporter among thousands of party faithful, some armed with chains, machetes, clubs and sticks, in a victory parade snaking through the capital.
"I'm really happy because Faure has won. With him I know I am always going to have a job," said Mariette (32), a market vendor.
The main opposition leader, Gilchrist Olympio, told reporters by telephone from exile in neighbouring Ghana that his party would reject the result because of fraud. His senior officials in Lomé called for a popular resistance.
"Lomé is burning," he said. "But the only solution is to come to a political settlement . . . otherwise we are going right into the abyss."
African leaders want to avoid another conflict in a region already struggling to end intertwined wars.