At least seven people have been killed and many more injured during recent anti-government protests in Togo\u2019s capital, Lom\u00e9, according to preliminary figures provided by civic groups on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The protests were over recent constitutional reforms that could cement President Faure Gnassingb\u00e9’s long hold on power. Videos emerged showing apparent abuses by security forces.<\/p>\n
Police fired tear gas in several neighborhoods of Lom\u00e9 and reportedly used batons to beat protesters, severely injuring some, according to footage that appears to be from the scene.<\/p>\n
Internet access across the West African nation has been restricted, with social media platforms functioning intermittently.<\/p>\n
Civil society groups and social media influencers had called for protests on June 26, 27 and 28, after the\u00a0government\u2019s clampdown on protests\u00a0early this month.<\/p>\n
Faure Gnassingb\u00e9, who has ruled since 2005 following his father’s death, was sworn in in May as\u00a0President of the Council of Ministers. The powerful role has no official term limits and he is eligible to be re-elected by Parliament indefinitely.<\/p>\n
Gnassingbe\u2019s former job as national president, a position that is now mostly ceremonial, was given to politician Jean-Lucien Kwassi Savi de Tove after the announcement.<\/p>\n
Opposition politicians have denounced the move as a \u201cconstitutional coup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demonstrations are rare in Togo because they have been banned in the country since 2022 following a deadly attack at Lome\u2019s main market.<\/p>\n
But the latest change in government structure has been widely criticized in a\u00a0region threatened by rampant coups\u00a0and other threats to democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least seven people have been killed and many more injured during recent anti-government protests in Togo\u2019s capital, Lom\u00e9, according to preliminary figures provided by civic groups on Sunday. The protests were over recent constitutional reforms that could cement President Faure Gnassingb\u00e9’s long hold on power. Videos emerged showing apparent abuses by security forces. Police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,27],"tags":[1778,2322,1083],"class_list":["post-16804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-faure-gnassingbe","tag-lome","tag-togo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}