In Togo’s capital, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the streets to demand Faure Gnassingbe’s resignation. Security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
On Thursday, hundreds of protesters erected concrete block barricades in various Lome neighborhoods, with some ignominating tyres and launching projectiles at security forces. In the opposition’s stronghold of Be, police used tear gas to disperse dozens of the protesters and make several arrests.
Gnassingbe is protesting as his government is increasingly urging him to step down over constitutional amendments that could keep him in power for an indefinite period.
Following the government’s crackdown on protests earlier this month, civil society organizations and influencers on social media had demanded protests from June 26 through June 28.
In the capital, where many businesses closed for the day, there was a large police presence. In some places, jeeps used as reinforcements for soldiers.
“We’re hungry,” Nothing is working for youth in Togo anymore, so we’re protesting this morning, according to 30-year-old unemployed man Kossi Albert, who stated that he planned to turn out once more on Friday.
Togo’s minister of territorial administration, Hodabalo Awate, did not respond to a request for comment on the security forces’ response to the protests right away.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, a group of political organizations known as “Hands Off My Constitution” called for “strongly urgent measures to restore purchasing power to the population and to immediately and unconditionally release all of the roughly one hundred political prisoners.”
An “unprecedented peaceful demonstration” was demanded.
Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 after his father’s passing, sworn in as the Council of Ministers’ president in May. There are no official terms for the powerful position.
Opposition politicians have criticized the action as a “constitutional coup” that could impose his rule on the populace.
Hundreds of people were detained by Togolese authorities earlier this month as a result of protests against Gnassingbe’s new role and what Amnesty International claimed was a cost-of-living crisis and a crackdown on dissent. The rights organization claimed that many of them were quickly released.
Demonstrations have been banned in Togo since 2022 following a deadly attack at Lome’s main market, which is unusual.
Source: Aljazeera
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