Following the violence sparked by Togolese presidential elections in April 2005, thousands of refugees fled into neighbouring countries. Eight months later, over 15,000 of them had been registered in Ghana alone by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Because people on both sides of the Ghana/Togo border belong to the same ethnic group, regufees were able to enjoy the relative hospitality of their neighbours. Rather than regrouping in large refugee camps, they joined populations in towns and villages scattered across the region, rapidly increasing the stress on already precarious sanitation and water infrastructures.

Despite claims by the Togolese and Ghanaian governments that conditions are now safe for the refugees to return home, thousands of them still refuse to do so. Many believe that as long as the current government remains, their lives will be in danger.