Civic rights groups say at least seven people have been killed during a crackdown on protesters who are calling for Togo’s leader, Faure Gnassingbé, to step down and release political prisoners.
According to a coalition called Le Front Citoyen Togo Debout, which accuses security forces and militias of committing abuses, seven bodies were recovered from rivers in the capital city, Lomé.
The Togolese government has denied that these deaths were linked to last week’s demonstrations.
It is now threatening legal action against the protest organisers, calling the protests a “campaign of disinformation and hatred” that was orchestrated from abroad.
These protests come weeks after Gnassingbé, who was president for two decades and whose family has ruled the country for 58 years, was sworn into a new post of President of the Council of Ministers, which has no official term limits.
