Tensions
erupted in Togo after protests against the ruling Gnassingbe family dynasty
over the weekend, turned deadly.
Some
protesters were killed and 13 others injured in Sokode, 338km north of the
capital, Lome, when security forces opened fire to break up demonstrations.
Tikpi
Atchadam, Togo's opposition leader and president of the PNP party, put the
death toll at seven on Saturday night.
President
Faure Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father,
Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was president for 38 years.
Wearing the
red colours of the position party and chanting "50 years is too
long!", thousands took to the streets of Lome on Saturday calling for the
reinstatement of the constitution limiting terms. Security forces fired tear
gas to disperse them.
"We believe
this is it," human rights activist Farida Nabourema told Al Jazeera on
Sunday, adding that Togo was at a turning point..
"This
is the time that this country that has been ruled by the oldest military regime
in Africa decided to rise for its freedom."
There has
been no official statement by the government regarding Saturday's violent
protest.
"People
are still so motivated and so ready. They showed so much courage. People were
pulling out bullets from their bodies. They were daring the regime and the
military."
A
demonstrator who spoke to Al Jazeera said the protesters were part of a
peaceful movement to reinstate a 1992 constitution that brought in notional
multi-party democracy after decades of dictatorship.
But 10 years
later, lawmakers amended it to enable Eyadema to run for another term.
Then, when
he died, the military effectively tore up the constitution by installing his
son as interim president, instead of the head of the national assembly, as was
legally required.
The protests
that followed Faure Gnassingbe's first election victory in 2005 triggered a
violent security crackdown in which around 500 people were killed.
"We are
protesting against the arbitrary nature of governance and denial of freedom to
assemble," PNP leader Tikpi Atchadam told Reuters news agency.
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