By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A large number of police officers in Togo on Friday took over the streets of Lome, the country’s capital, in response to a rare demonstration against the government.
President Faure Gnassingbe has led the African country since 2005, succeeding his father, who ruled for nearly four decades.
Young Togolese, often referred to as “Gen Z”, and civil society activists had rallied for the Friday protests through social media to ventilate their anger against the arrest of critical voices, a hike in fuel prices and a recent constitutional amendment which critics say is just a means for Gnassingbe to extend his grip on power.
Police on Friday morning dispersed a few dozen protesters with teargas in different parts of the capital, particularly near the president’s office.
Journalists covering the protests were briefly detained, while security officers forced them to delete images captured with their gadgets.
Calls for protests gained new momentum on Thursday following the reappearance of Aamron, a popular Togolese rapper and loud critic of Gnassingbé’s rule, ten days after his arrest.
Hours before his arrest, Aamron had joined others in calling for Friday’s protests. He spent over a week in detention and has since been transferred to a psychiatric centre in Zebe, about 50 kilometres east of Lome, for what was described as “severe depression”, sparking outrage from opposition groups and civil society, who condemned a crackdown on dissent.
Another activist, Honore Sitsope Sokpor, known online as “Affectio”, had also been jailed in January over a poem he published on social media.
The government said Friday that, under Togolese law, publishing audiovisual messages “calling for a popular uprising against the institutions of the Republic” is considered an “aggravating circumstance”.
