Protesters Take to the Streets in Togo
Several hundred protesters gathered in Vogan, a town in southern Togo, on Sunday to voice their opposition to a new constitutional reform adopted in 2024.
The rally, organized by the National Concertation Council for Change in Togo (CNCC), a coalition of opposition parties and civil society organizations, took place about 60 kilometers from the capital city of Lomé.
Protesters carried signs with slogans such as ‘No to unconstitutional government change’ and ‘Constitutional coup d’état’, denouncing what they see as an illegitimate reform.
‘The 2024 constitution is completely illegal. It’s a constitutional coup that the Togolese will never accept,’ said David Dosseh, spokesperson for the Front Citizen Togo Debout (FCTD), one of the organizations behind the rally.
The new Basic Law, which came into effect in 2024, has significantly altered Togo’s institutions. It abolished direct presidential elections and established a parliamentary system. President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power since 2005, now holds the position of president of the Council, the highest executive post in the country.
Opposition groups and civil society actors believe that this reform aims to extend their leader’s rule indefinitely. In contrast, the government defends a text that it claims strengthens institutional representation.
Tensions surrounding this reform have already led to protests in 2025, resulting in seven deaths according to civil society sources, while the prosecutor’s office cites five deaths due to drowning.
A court ruling on January 29 found that this reform constituted ‘a change in unconstitutional government.’ The Togolese government rejected this decision, arguing that the court overstepped its authority, limited to checking human rights and communal law compliance without being able to comment on internal laws.
