Last year witnessed the first rumblings of a revolution in Togo. A brutal crackdown followed — but the unrest simmers beneath the surface.
Governance is a family business but a new generation of protesters is trying to disrupt the old order— It seems like everyone living in Togo’s capital, Lomé, rises with the sun on weekends to go jogging. Its palm-lined beaches, sprawling along the Gulf of Guinea, teem with runners young and old, shouting encouragement to each other in French and Ewe. It looks like a happy place.
Chabine Samoudou, who is unemployed, was at an antigovernment demonstration in December. He marched alongside supporters of the opposition Pan-African National Party, with banners proclaiming “Faure Must Go”.“As I dey here like this, I be student for Togo,” Samoudou said. “I suppose to get work but I no get anything,” the 25-year-old vented.The government’s response to the protests has been typically brutal, with both military and police used to crush the demonstrations.
Deborah Sossou says her son, Satchivi Folly, a student leader, was taken to prison after he held a press conference. The December parliamentary elections did not alter the status quo. C14 boycotted the elections on grounds that the vote was rigged against the opposition. Unsurprisingly Gnassingbé’s ruling Union for the Republic won a clear majority: 59 out of 91 National Assembly seats.
“The past two years, I move around [countries] every two to three weeks and sometimes even less,” she told CNN. The state’s uncompromising response has taken its toll on protesters. Hope is waning: fewer protests are being staged and even fewer people are turning out. An uneasy quiet has settled over the country since the beginning of the year, although this could mean that the opposition is re-strategising ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Ameetekpo suggests.
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