Security forces used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who blocked roads in Togo’s capital to demand the resignation of longtime leader Faure Gnassingbe.
Hundreds of protesters set up concrete block barricades on Thursday in several neighbourhoods of Lome, with some burning tyres and throwing projectiles at security forces. Police dispersed dozens of the protesters with tear gas and arrested several people in the Be neighbourhood, an opposition stronghold.
The protests come as Gnassingbe faces increasing calls from critics to resign, over changes to the country’s constitution that could keep him in power indefinitely.
Civil society groups and social media influencers had called for protests from June 26-28, after the government’s clampdown on protests earlier this month.
A heavy police presence was set up throughout the capital, where many businesses closed for the day. Military jeeps were also deployed as reinforcements in some areas.
“We’re hungry. Nothing works for Togolese youth any more, that’s why we’re going out to protest this morning,” said Kossi Albert, a 30-year-old unemployed man, adding that he was planning to turn out again on Friday.
Hodabalo Awate, Togo’s minister of territorial administration, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the security forces’ response to the protests.
A coalition of political groups known as “Hands Off My Constitution” said in a Facebook post on Wednesday it “strongly urges Faure Gnassingbe to immediately and unconditionally release all of the roughly one hundred political prisoners, and to take urgent measures to restore purchasing power to the population”.
It called for an “unprecedented peaceful demonstration”.
Gnassingbe, who has ruled since 2005 after the death of his father, was in May sworn in as president of the Council of Ministers. The powerful role has no official term limits.
Opposition politicians have denounced the move as a “constitutional coup” that could extend his rule for life.
Togolese authorities arrested dozens of people earlier this month during protests against Gnassingbe’s new role as well as what critics described as a crackdown on dissent and a cost-of-living crisis, according to Amnesty International. Many were quickly released, the rights group said.
Demonstrations are rare in Togo because they have been banned in the country since 2022, following a deadly attack at Lome’s main market.
But the latest change in government structure has been widely criticised in a region that has witnessed coups and other threats to democracy.
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