Togo: 56 people released after the June 6 protests in Lomé
In a statement released this Monday, June 9, the Togolese public prosecutor provided details and judicial follow-up on the demonstrations that occurred on the night of June 5 to 6 in Lomé. According to Prosecutor Talaka Mawama, these gatherings, deemed illegal, were reportedly organized in response to calls shared on social media, urging the population to protest against the Republic’s institutions.
Togo – Lome @ Gouv Togo
On the night of June 5 to 6 in Lomé, spontaneous gatherings were observed in several districts of the capital, where young people erected barricades using pans and various objects, blocking traffic routes. In the Bè district, where a team from Benin Web TV managed to visit, several young people protested all night by throwing stones on the roads, setting fires to tires in the middle of the streets, and chanting hostile slogans against Faure’s regime. The intervention of security forces led to the arrest of several dozen people accused of obstructing free movement and disturbing public order.
According to the public prosecutor, this would be a destabilization plan orchestrated from abroad, involving, as he put it, compatriots from the diaspora and foreign nationals, including a Frenchman recently settled in Togo. These accusations come amid a tense context marked by growing opposition to Faure Gnassingbé’s regime, especially since the 2024 constitutional revision that changed the method of appointing the head of state.
According to judicial authorities, these protests took place in violation of law n° 2019-010, which regulates the exercise of freedom of assembly. The prosecutor emphasizes the illegal nature of these actions, which he describes as an insurrectional movement.
However, following preliminary investigations and hearings, fifty-six (56) individuals arrested have been released, as the charges against them were deemed minor. Some detentions have been extended to allow further investigations, according to the prosecutor. The individuals concerned will be presented to the prosecutor’s office again once additional investigative elements have been gathered.
Note that this wave of protest, primarily driven by young people and artists, occurs in a climate of tension fueled by political repression, the recent increase in electricity prices, and the arrest of rapper Aamron, who has become an emblematic figure of a protest movement shaping itself outside traditional political frameworks.