At least seven people were killed and “dozens” injured in demonstrations in Lomé at the end of June against power, civil society organizations and human rights defense said on Sunday.
Denouncing “the abuses committed by elements of the Togolese police and militiamen, they reported seven bodies drafted in rivers in the capital of Togo. They also noted “dozens of injured” and “more than sixty people” arrested, three days of demonstrations from Thursday to Saturday.
The Togolese authorities have not advanced an official assessment, but a gendarmerie brigade mentioned two deaths “occurred by drowning”.
“We are not animals”
“We are in a country where citizens still have the right to go out, to express themselves and they do not have to face this brutality put in place by the State, it is unacceptable,” David Dosseh, spokesperson for the “Citizen Front Togo Standing, told AFP. “We are not animals, we are sons of this country and as the sons and citizens of this country, the Constitution gives us the right to express ourselves and to demonstrate peacefully,” he added.
The demonstrations have been rare in Togo in recent years, but it was the second call launched on social networks to take to the street this month.
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On June 5 and 6, demonstrators, mainly young, had descended into the street and around fifty arrests had been reported by the authorities. From Thursday to Saturday, sometimes gathered by dozens in certain districts of Lomé, the demonstrators were dispersed with tear gas. Tires and wooden barricades were burned in certain streets in the capital where many businesses had remained closed.
The demonstrators protested against arrests of critical voices, the increase in the price of electricity or the constitutional reform which allows Faure Gnassingbé, 59, to consolidate his power.
