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Togolese Protesters in Lagos Call for Faure Gnassingbé to Step Down

Several dozen protesters carrying Togolese flags and signs gathered in Lagos, Nigeria, on August 19, demanding for Togo’s ruling Gnassingbé family to surrender power and for the country to “return to the constitution of 1992.”

Simultaneously in Togo’s capital city, Lomé, several people were reportedly killed after large scale protests turned violent. Video from a journalist on the scene showed protesters running as police fired tear gas to disperse a demonstration.

President Faure Gnassingbé was elected in 2005 after the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma who took control of Togo in two military coups in the 1960s and was regarded a dictator. The constitutional referendum of 1992 re-established multi-party democracy in the country, but the Gnassingbé family has controlled Togo since the early 1960s. Credit: Twitter/@honwalexy via Storyful