Togo: Thousands protest against 50-year ruling dynasty

By Alpha Kamara

DAKAR, Senegal

Thousands of opposition supporters Wednesday took to the streets in Togo’s capital Lome against the 50-year ruling dynasty in the country.

The protest came a day after the Cabinet endorsed an urgent bill to amend the constitution and introduce presidential term limits on Tuesday night.

Togolese main opposition leader Jean Pierre Fabre termed the government’s last minute move to push the proposal to the legislature as “suspicious”.

“If the president believes that it is with this joke he will get the opposition’s backing, he has failed. This has made us more determined,” Fabre said.

The opposition would continue to protest until President Faure Gnassingbe leaves the office, Fabre told Anadolu Agency by phone.

On Aug. 19, the opposition’s protest ended in chaos as at least five protesters were killed in a clash with police.

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father, who ruled the country for 38 years.

Internet has reportedly been shut down throughout the day and security personnel have been deployed along the streets of the capital and other cities, a local journalist Ida Bajo told Anadolu Agency.

In neighboring Ghana, thousands of Togolese nationals also protested in solidarity with the opposition.

“We the women are joining the protest because we have also suffered a series of abuses from the government. We have had enough of one family ruling in the country for almost 50 years,” Farida Nabourema, Togolese woman rights activist in Ghana, told Anadolu news on phone.

A small faction of government supporters are also reported to be on the streets to counter the opposition protesters.