The authorities of Togo have not yet provided official data on the number of victims, and the gendarmerie only informed about two young people who “drowned”.
“More people drowned” because – according to witnesses – the police surrounded the demonstrators on the streets and pushed them to Lagun, among which the capital of the country is laid – Lome. According to AFP, seven protesters were killed in this way.
Demonstrations, which in Togo since 2022 are official banned, began on Thursday a small group of artists and the so -called influencers. Hundreds of young people followed quickly in their footsteps, who blocked the streets of the capital and several other cities on Friday and Saturday, burning tires on them and placing barricades.
“Several people were arrested, serious injuries, beatings and chases around the houses” – calculated the Togian League of Human Rights on Sunday.
The Togians protested against the rising prices of electricity and, above all, the constitutional reform, which last year forced the 59-year-old leader of the Faure Gnassingbe country. After a change in the constitution, liquidating the office of the president, Gnassingbe, which has been governing the country since 2005, in May he was sworn in as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, a function that has no cantarial restrictions.
