Togo
Name
| Official name | Togolese Republic — République togolaise in French, the official language; Togo in the ordinary usage of the state and the world, "le Togo" in French; the Fifth Republic (Ve République) by the constitution in force since 3 May 2025, after the Fourth of 1992–2025, the Third of 1979–92, the Second of 1963–67 and the First of 1960–63; the UN's member since 20 September 1960 as Togo; "RT" the initials on the arms and the old plates |
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| Former names | French Togoland (Togo français; the League of Nations mandate of 1922 and the UN trust territory of 1946, the autonomous Republic of Togo within the French Union from 1956) — the eastern two-thirds of the German Togoland (Schutzgebiet Togo, 5 July 1884 – 26 August 1914) partitioned with Britain in 1916 and 1919, the western British Togoland voting into the Gold Coast on 9 May 1956 and into Ghana at its independence in 1957; the Slave Coast of the European charts for the Bight of Benin shore of the 17th–19th centuries; Togodo (Togoville) the village of the treaty; the kingdoms of Notsé (the Ewe), Tado (the Aja), Glidji (the Guin-Mina) and Sansanné-Mango (the Anufo) the older names on the land |
| Demonym | Togolese (Togolais, Togolaise) — the citizens of every tongue; the Ewe (Eʋe) of the south and the Volta, the Mina (Guin, Gen) of Lomé and Aného, the Kabye (Kabiyè) of Kara and Pya (Eyadéma's people), the Tem (Kotokoli) of Sokodé, the Gourma, Moba and Anufo (Chokossi) of the Savanes, the Bassar, Konkomba, Lamba, Nawdba, Akposso, Ifè and the Batammariba (Tamberma) of Koutammakou — about 40 peoples by the counts; the Ewe day names (Kofi, Kodjo, Yao, Ama, Afi) and the Kabye ones; "Togoland" the colonial adjective, "Togolander" in the old British papers |
| Meaning of the name | From Togodo (Togoville) on the north shore of Lake Togo, the village where Gustav Nachtigal's treaty with King Mlapa III of 5 July 1884 was signed — to (water) and go (bank, shore) in Ewe, "behind the water" or "on the far shore" of the lagoon by the readings both stated; the Germans named the whole protectorate after it; "Lomé" from alotimé, "among the alo trees" (the Ewe name of the sacred Zanthoxylum), the city's founding story of the 1880s |
| Motto | "Travail, Liberté, Patrie" ("Work, Liberty, Homeland") — the words on the ribbon of the arms of 14 March 1962 and in Article 2 of the constitution, the order of the three changed by the regimes of the years ("Union, Paix, Solidarité" the RPT's slogan of the 1970s–80s); "Terre de nos aïeux" ("Land of our forefathers") the anthem's first words; "Protéger, Unir, Transformer" ("Protect, Unite, Transform") the three priorities of the government's 2026–2031 roadmap in its final review of September 2026 |
Quick facts
| Capital | Lomé — on the Gulf of Guinea at the country's southwestern corner, the Ghana line at Aflao within the city's edge; founded by Ewe traders in the 1880s on the sand bar between the ocean and the lagoon to trade around the British customs of the Gold Coast, the capital of German Togoland from 1897 (Baguida and Aného before it), of French Togoland and of the Republic; 1.5 million people in the city of 99.14 km² and 2.2 million in the Grand Lomé of 280 km² by the census of November 2022 (about 15,000 per km² in the core); the presidency at Lomé II in the city's north, the Palais des Congrès of the Senate, the Assembly at the Place de l'Indépendance with its monument of 1960, the Grand Marché and the Nana Benz, the Cathedral of 1902, the Akodessewa fetish market of the Vodun, the port (1968), the Lomé–Tokoin airport (Gnassingbé Eyadéma International), the University of Lomé (1970), the headquarters of Ecobank (1985), the West African Development Bank (BOAD, 1973) and ASKY (2010); the Grand Lomé district with its own governor since 2019; the Lomé Convention of 28 February 1975 and the Lomé Peace Accord of 7 July 1999 |
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| Largest cities | Lomé (1.5 million in the city and 2.2 million in Grand Lomé by the 2022 census; 1,477,658 at the census of 2010) — about a quarter of the people; then by the 2010 census (the 2022 city counts not yet published by the statistics institute's tables) Sokodé (95,070; the Tem city of the center and the Muslim north's gate), Kara (94,878; the Kabye city of the north, Eyadéma's showcase with the University of Kara of 2004 and the Evala wrestling of July), Kpalimé (75,084; the coffee-and-cocoa town under Mont Agou), Atakpamé (69,261; the Plateaux capital), Dapaong (58,071; the Savanes capital), Tsévié (54,474; the Maritime capital), Aného (24,891; the old Petit-Popo and the German capital of 1887–97), Mango (24,766; Sansanné-Mango of the Anufo), Bassar (23,181), Niamtougou, Vogan, Tabligbo, Badou, Blitta, Cinkassé at the Burkina gate |
| Official language | French — the language of the state, the courts, the schools and the press since the mandate, spoken by about 40% of the people by the OIF's counts and by most of the towns; Ewe (Eʋegbe) and Kabiyè the two national languages by the reform of 1975, taught in the schools — Ewe the tongue of the south and of the Volta's two shores (about 3 million speakers in Togo by the counts, the Gbe family with Mina and Aja), Kabiyè the north's (about a million); Mina (Gen) the market language of Lomé and the coast; Tem (Kotokoli), Moba, Gourma (Gourmantché), Bassar (Ntcham), Konkomba, Akposso, Ifè, Lamba, Nawdm, Hausa in the markets of the north; about 40 languages by the ethnologists; English in the schools and the Ghana trade, the Commonwealth's since 2022; the Ewe script of the Bremen missionaries (1850s) |
| Currency | West African CFA franc (ISO code XOF; FCFA) — pegged at 655.957 to the euro (100 to the French franc from the devaluation of 12 January 1994, 50 before; the peg since the euro's birth of 1 January 1999), about 583 to the U.S. dollar on 2 October 2026 by the market's count (the euro at 1.1256) and about 6 to the Indian rupee; issued by the BCEAO of Dakar (1959/1962; the Lomé branch on the Avenue de Sarakawa) for the eight WAEMU states — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo; notes of 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 francs, coins of 5 to 500; the reform of 21 December 2019 (the reserves no longer deposited in Paris, the French seat on the board gone, the guarantee kept) and the "eco" of ECOWAS still a plan; the policy rate 3.00% since March 2026 (held 9 September 2026); the mobile money of Flooz (Moov) and TMoney (Togocel) in every market |
| Time zone | Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) — the same clock as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, London in winter and Lisbon; no daylight saving; an hour behind Benin, Niger and Nigeria (UTC+1) across the eastern line, so the Hillacondji–Sanvee Condji border post with Benin changes the hour; five and a half hours behind India |
| Calling code, internet and ISO codes | +228 (the eight-digit numbers since 2008; the 9x mobiles of Togocel and Moov Africa Togo), internet .tg (1996), about 40% of the people online by the ITU's counts and mobile lines above the population; the fiber of the Lomé landing (the WACS and Equiano cables), the state's Togocom (Togo Telecom and Togocel) sold to the Axian–Emerging Capital pair in 2019, Moov Africa Togo (Maroc Telecom) the second carrier; the internet cut in the protest days of June 2025 by the rights groups' accounts; ISO 3166 TG / TGO / 768; vehicle registration code RT (TG on the new plates); the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and the UN's TOG |
| Area | 56,785 km² (21,925 sq mi) — the 123rd country of the world; land 54,390 km², water 2,400 km² (4.2%: Lake Togo, the lagoons, the Nangbéto reservoir, the Mono and the Oti); a strip 579 km long from the Burkina Faso line at Cinkassé to the sea and 160 km at its widest, 50 km at the coast — about the size of Croatia (56,594 km²) or Himachal Pradesh (55,673 km²) and about a sixtieth of India; about half the size of its neighbor Benin (114,763 km²) and a quarter of Ghana; the five regions from the sea to the savanna — Maritime, Plateaux, Centrale, Kara, Savanes |
| Population | 8,095,498 at the fifth general census of November 2022 (INSEED) — 6,191,155 at the census of 2010, 1.44 million at the first of 1960; 9,583,381 by the UN's estimate for 2024 (the 101st country), about 9.9 million by the 2026 projection — the census and the estimates both stated (the UN's series running higher than the counts); growth about 2.5% a year (31.9 births and 5.3 deaths per 1,000 by the 2024 estimates), the population four times that of 1960; about 45% urban by the UN's count (37.7% at the 2010 census — both stated); the Maritime Region about 45% of the people on a fifth of the land, the Savanes the fastest-growing |
| Density | About 143 people per km² by the census of 2022, about 169 by the UN's 2024 estimate — both stated (125.9 by the infobox's older arithmetic); the Maritime Region above 700 per km², Grand Lomé about 8,000 and the city's core 15,000; the Plateaux and Centrale regions the emptiest at 50–60; the Kabye country around Kara among the densest rural lands of West Africa (the terraced hills of the north the reason for the Kabye migration south to the Plateaux since the 1920s) |
| Religion | Christianity about 50%, the traditional religions about 33% and Islam about 16% by the 2025 estimate the infobox carries; 42.3% Christian, 36.9% traditional, 14% Muslim by the older count — both stated; the Catholics (about 28%; the archdiocese of Lomé of 1955, the cathedral of 1902, the Aného church of the German years) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of the Bremen mission (1847), the Methodists, the Assemblies of God and the new churches; Islam the north's and Sokodé's (the Tem, the Anufo, the Hausa traders; the Union Musulmane du Togo); Vodun the religion under the religions of the south — the Akodessewa fetish market of Lomé (the largest of its kind by the common claim), the Epe Ekpe sacred-stone festival of Glidji each September, the Ewe and Mina shrines of Lake Togo and Togoville's oracle; the Baháʼí 1%; no state religion, the secular republic of Article 1 |
| Government type | Unitary parliamentary republic under the constitution of the Fifth Republic — passed by the National Assembly on 19 April 2024 (89 of the 91 sitting), promulgated 6 May 2024 and in force from 3 May 2025: the President of the Republic elected by Parliament for four years, once renewable, with ceremonial powers; the President of the Council of Ministers, the leader of the Assembly's majority, the executive for the legislature's six-year term with no limit on renewal; the Assembly of 113 and the Senate of 61; the Constitutional Court of nine — a parliamentary system in the government's account, a "constitutional coup" that ended the presidential term limit of 2019 in the opposition's and the June 6 Movement's — both stated (LAW 2); the Gnassingbé family in power since the coup of 13 January 1967 (Eyadéma 1967–2005, Faure since 2005) by every account; the 1992 constitution's referendum of 27 September 1992 the last popular vote on a charter |
| Head of state | President Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové — 87, born 7 May 1939 in Lomé, a civil servant and party man of the Eyadéma years who left the RPT in 1986, marched in 1990–91, founded the Party of Democrats for Unity (PDU) and was the opposition's choice for prime minister refused by the government in 1993; elected President of the Republic by the National Assembly unanimously on 3 May 2025, four days short of 86 — the oldest head of state ever elected by the record; a four-year term, once renewable, with the ceremonial powers of the new charter (the promulgation of laws, the honors, the representation); his predecessor Faure Gnassingbé the President of the Republic from 4 May 2005 to 3 May 2025 |
| Head of government | Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé — President of the Council of Ministers since 3 May 2025, 60, born 6 June 1966 at Afagnan in the Lacs Prefecture, the son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma (President 1967–2005) and Séna Sabine Mensah, schooled in Paris (Dauphine) and at George Washington University, the minister of equipment and mines of 2003–05; installed by the army on 6 February 2005 on his father's death, stood down under ECOWAS's pressure on 25 February, elected on 24 April 2005 with 60.2% in the vote whose aftermath killed 400 to 500 by the UN mission's count and 811 by the Togolese League of Human Rights' (both stated), re-elected 4 March 2010 (60.9%), 25 April 2015 (58.8%) and 22 February 2020 (70.8%) — each contested by the opposition; the Prime Minister's post abolished with the new charter (Victoire Tomegah Dogbé, 2020–25, the last and the first woman); the government of 8 October 2025 of 27 members (17 ministers, 10 deputies) — Robert Dussey at foreign affairs (since 2013), Essowè Georges Barcola at finance, Badanam Patoki at the economy, Colonel Calixte Madjoulba at security, Colonel Hodabalo Awaté at territorial administration, Pacôme Adjourouvi at justice, Kodjo Adedze at urban planning; the African Union's mediator for the Congo–Rwanda conflict since April 2025; Moscow on 18–19 November 2025 |
| Legislature | Parliament of two houses since 2025 — the National Assembly of 113 (elected 29 April 2024 for the new charter's six-year term: the Union for the Republic 108, the Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development 2, the National Alliance for Change (ANC) 1, the Dynamic for the Majority of the People 1, the Democratic Forces for the Republic 1; turnout 61.76%; the Speaker Komi Sélom Klassou since 28 October 2025, elected 103 of 103 after Kodjo Adedze (Speaker from 14 June 2024) joined the government) and the Senate of 61 (41 elected by the municipal and regional councillors on 15 February 2025 — UNIR 34 — and 20 named by the head of government; six-year terms; the first sitting 6 March 2025 at the Palais des Congrès; the President Barry Moussa Barqué since 3 April 2025; the senators Bitokotipou Yagninim and Abass Kaboua died in February and April 2026); the Assembly on the Place de l'Indépendance; the opposition's boycott of 2018 and its five seats of 2024 — the majority's and the opposition's readings of the Assembly's mandate both stated (LAW 2) |
| National Day | 27 April — Independence Day, the day of 1960 (and of the election of 1958 that won it), the parade on the Place de l'Indépendance; 13 January the "Liberation Day" of the 1967 coup on the Eyadéma-era calendar (and the day of Olympio's murder in 1963, the opposition's day of mourning) — both readings stated; 21 June Martyrs' Day (the Pya events of 1957); 1 May Labor Day, 15 August the Assumption, 1 November All Saints', 25 December; Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday; Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (Tabaski) and the Prophet's birthday by the lunar calendar; 26 April the eve's torchlight; the Evala of Kara in July, the Epe Ekpe of Glidji in September, the Ayizan of Lomé |
| Driving side and HDI | Right (the French rule; Ghana's switch to the right in 1974 made the whole coast one side); the roads of the RN1 and the coast the killers (the Centrale crash of 31 January 2026 with ten dead, the Kozah crash of 8 March 2026 with 14, the motorcycle taxis — the zemidjans — of Lomé); Human Development Index 0.571 (2023), 161st, "medium"; Gini 43.1 (2015); poverty 55.1% below the national line by the 2015 count, 49.2% under US$1.90 a day; life expectancy 71.4 years by the 2024 estimate the demographics page carries (68.8 men, 74.0 women) against about 62 by the UN's life tables — both stated; literacy about 67%; 220 V, the C and E plugs |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | The flag of 27 April 1960 — five horizontal stripes of green and yellow (green at the top and bottom) with a red square in the canton bearing a white five-pointed star; the design of Paul Ahyi (1930–2010), the Lomé-born painter and sculptor fresh from the Paris Beaux-Arts in 1959, who also made the Independence Monument; the green the forests, the fields and hope, the yellow the soil's wealth, faith and the work of the people, the red the blood of the independence fighters and the love of the homeland, the white star peace, wisdom and light by the government's reading, the five stripes the five regions by the common gloss; the proportion the golden ratio of about 1:1.618 by the constitution's silence and the vexillologists' measure, 3:5 and 2:3 by the two handbooks — all three stated; the autonomous republic's flag of 1957–60 a green field with the French tricolor in the canton and two yellow stars; the German and French flags before; the flag the same through every republic since 1960.Flag of Togo |
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| Coat of arms | The arms of 14 March 1962 — an oval shield with the initials "RT" (République togolaise) in gold on a red disc, two national flags crossed behind it, two red lions rampant back to back holding a bow and arrow each (the people's courage and the guard of the nation), the ribbon "Travail, Liberté, Patrie" above and the yellow field of the Article 2 description; the arms on the passport, the seals and the presidency's gate; the lions the only animals of the state's symbols; the takienta tower-houses of Koutammakou the "official national symbol" of the tourism ministry's designation |
| National anthem | "Terre de nos aïeux" ("Land of our forefathers") — the words and music of Alex Casimir-Dosseh (1923–2007), the Aného-born composer and the archbishop's brother, adopted at independence in 1960 ("Salut à toi, pays de nos aïeux, toi qui les rendait forts, paisibles et joyeux"); replaced from 1979 to 1991 by the single party's "L'Unité nationale" and restored by the national conference of 1991 and the constitution of 1992; sung in French, the Ewe and Kabye versions of the schools |
| National motto | "Travail, Liberté, Patrie" ("Work, Liberty, Homeland") — on the arms since 1962 and in the constitutions since; the slogans of the regimes beside it — the RPT's "Union, Paix, Solidarité" of the single-party years, Eyadéma's "authenticity" of 1974 after Sarakawa, Faure's "Togo Vision 2025" and the "Feuille de route gouvernementale 2020–2025" of 42 projects, the "Protéger, Unir, Transformer" of the 2026–2031 roadmap of nine ambitions and 15 flagship programs; the opposition's "Faure must go" of 2017 and "Togo Debout" ("Togo stand up") of 2025 — the two sides' words both stated |
| National colors | Green, yellow, red and white of the flag — the pan-African green-yellow-red of Ghana's flag of 1957 with Togo's own arrangement; the Éperviers in the flag's colors (the yellow and green kits, the red of the away days); the UNIR's blue of the party flags and the ANC's orange-yellow, the RPT's old green; the kente-like kete of the Ewe weavers of the Volta, the wax prints (the "Dutch wax" of Vlisco) the Nana Benz sold from the Grand Marché across West Africa in the 1960s–80s; the indigo of the Kabye and the white of the Vodun initiates; the red earth of the Kara road |
| National animal | None by law — the two lions of the arms the state's beasts; the sparrowhawk (épervier) the football team's since the 1960s; the wildlife of the parks — the elephants and buffalo of Fazao-Malfakassa (1,920 km², the largest park, 1975) and of Kéran (the north's, the Oti plain), the hippos of the Mono and the Oti, the crocodiles of the lagoons, the monkeys of the Kloto forest, the antelopes of the Oti-Mandouri reserve (the Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri biosphere reserve of 2011, the Mono's of 2017 shared with Benin), the sea turtles of the Aného beaches; the Abdoulaye and Togodo reserves; the butterflies of Kpalimé's Mount Klouto the naturalists' draw; the guinea fowl of the north's markets; the agouti (the grasscutter) of the pot |
| National flower and tree | None by law — the teak (Tectona grandis) the tree of the land by the plantations the Germans began in the 1900s (Togo one of West Africa's teak exporters), the baobab of the Savanes, the iroko and the kapok (the silk-cotton tree of the villages), the oil palm of the coast (the palm wine and the sodabi spirit), the coconut of the Aného shore, the shea of the north (the women's butter), the néré; the coffee and cocoa trees of the Kloto, Akposso and Litimé plateaus since the German trials; the cotton of the center and north the crop of the Savanes' cash; the mango of every yard; the hibiscus (bissap) of the drink; the "Togo tree" of the forestry campaigns (1 June the national tree-planting day since 1977) |
| National dish | Fufu (foufou, the pounded yam) with the groundnut, palm-nut or okra sauce, and akume (the maize or cassava paste) with gboma dessi (the spinach-and-tomato stew) — the plates of the south; koklo meme (the grilled chicken with the chili paste and the red onion) the Lomé street dish, ablo (the steamed rice-and-maize cakes) with fried fish on the coast, koliko (the fried yam chips), ayimolou (the rice and beans of the bars), riz au gras, the agouti and the goat kebabs of the maquis, the pâte of the Kabye with the baobab-leaf sauce, the smoked fish of Lake Togo, the djenkoumé (the tomato-maize cake); the sodabi (the distilled palm wine) and the tchoukoutou (the millet beer of the north) the drinks, the BB lager of the Brasserie BB of Lomé (1964) and the Awooyo; the bissap and the ginger juice; the coffee of Kloto; the chili (the piment) the register |
| National sport | Football — the Éperviers (the Sparrowhawks) of the Fédération Togolaise de Football (1960; CAF 1963, FIFA 1964), the one World Cup of 2006 (lost 1–2 to South Korea, 0–2 to Switzerland, 0–2 to France; Mohamed Kader's goal and the bonus strike), eight Africa Cup of Nations (1972, 1984, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2013, 2017; the quarterfinal of 2013 the best), the Cabinda attack of 8 January 2010 on the team bus in Angola (the assistant coach, the press officer and the driver killed, the withdrawal and CAF's two-edition ban later lifted); Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham; the African Footballer of the Year of 2008; 32 goals in 88 caps), Alaixys Romao (97 caps), Kevin Denkey, Djené the captain; the coach Patrice Neveu (2026); the Stade de Kégué of Lomé (2000; 30,000); FIFA's 119th in June 2026; out of AFCON 2025 and of the 2026 World Cup (fourth in the group of Sudan, Senegal and DR Congo); the ASKO of Kara and the Dynamic Togolais of the Championnat National; the Olympic record one medal — Benjamin Boukpeti's bronze of the K1 canoe slalom at Beijing 2008; the Winter Games of 2014 and 2018; the Evala wrestling of the Kabye (the July initiation at Kara), the Tour du Togo cycling (since 1989), the Lomé marathon, the basketball and the handball of the schools, the Togolese boxing of the 1960s |
| Heritage listings | UNESCO World Heritage ×1 — Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (2004; the takienta tower-houses of mud and thatch in the Kara Region's northeast around Nadoba; extended in 2023 across the border into Benin's Atakora to 271,826 ha as one property); a tentative list of a handful of sites (the Aného–Glidji ensemble among them by the submissions); the intangible list — the Gelede oral heritage (2008, shared with Benin and Nigeria); the biosphere reserves Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri (2011) and the Mono delta (2017, with Benin); four Ramsar wetlands (the Kéran, the Oti-Mandouri, the Mono basin, the coastal wetlands of the lagoons); the parks Fazao-Malfakassa (1975), Kéran (1950/1971) and Togodo; the forests about a quarter of the land by the FAO's counts, the tree-cover loss of 82,074 ha over 2001–24 by the satellite count; the Koutammakou's siken the "national symbol" of the tourism rolls |
| Symbol status | The flag by the constitution's Article 2 (the 1960 text kept by the charters of 1963, 1979, 1992 and 2024) and the law of 1960 on Paul Ahyi's design; the arms by the law of 14 March 1962 and the same article; the motto by the article; the anthem by the independence decree of 1960, displaced by the RPT's of 1979 and restored by the constitution of 1992; no animal, flower, tree, dish or color by law — the lions by the arms, the sparrowhawk by the federation, the takienta by the tourism ministry's naming; the national day by the constitution and the holidays decree; Vodun's festivals by custom; the CFA franc by the WAEMU treaty |
Geography
| Location | West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea — a strip between Ghana on the west and Benin on the east with Burkina Faso at the north, the sea at the south, between 6°06′ and 11°08′ N and 0°09′ W and 1°48′ E (the prime meridian's line crossing the far west at Badou); 579 km from north to south, 160 km at the widest and 50 km at the coast; the borders — Ghana 877 km by the geography page's count (1,098 by the Factbook's), Benin 644 km (651), Burkina Faso 126 km (131) — both counts stated, 1,647 or 1,880 km in all; the Mono the Benin line in the south, the Volta basin's Oti crossing the north; the coast 56 km of the Bight of Benin from Aflao to Hillacondji; Lomé among the few capitals of the world on an international border (the Ghana post of Aflao in the city); no islands of note |
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| Regions | Five regions from the sea to the savanna — Maritime (Tsévié the seat; Lomé's Grand Lomé a district of its own since 2019; the lagoons, the coconut shore, the phosphate plateau of Hahotoé), Plateaux (Atakpamé; the Togo Mountains, Kpalimé and the coffee-cocoa country, the Nangbéto dam), Centrale (Sokodé; the Fazao-Malfakassa forest, Blitta's railhead and solar park), Kara (Kara; the Kabye hills, Pya, Koutammakou, Niamtougou's airport) and Savanes (Dapaong; the Oti plain, Mango, Cinkassé at the Burkina gate, the emergency zone since 2022); 39 prefectures and 117 communes since the decentralization of 2019 (the first municipal elections since 1987 on 30 June 2019), the regional councils elected 29 April 2024 (UNIR 137 of 179); the prefects appointed; the "Grand Lomé" governor |
| Highest point | Mont Agou — 986 m (3,235 ft), Baumann Peak (Baumannspitze) of the German maps for the explorer Oskar Baumann, in the Togo Mountains above Kpalimé in the Plateaux Region 10 km from the Ghana line, the villages of the Agou slopes, the television mast and the coffee on its flanks; the range the Atakora–Togo chain running southwest to northeast from Ghana's Akwapim hills across the country into Benin's Atakora — the Kloto and Akposso plateaus (Mount Klouto 741 m, the Danyi plateau), the Fazao and Malfakassa hills (the Alédjo fault and its gorge on the RN1), the Kabye massif of Kara (the Pya and Lama hills), the Défalé chain; the north's Dapaong escarpment |
| Lowest point | Sea level on the Gulf of Guinea — the 56 km of sand beach from Aflao to Hillacondji on the Bight of Benin, the lagoons of Lomé (the Bè lagoon of the June 2025 bodies by the rights groups' accounts) and Aného behind the bar, Lake Togo at a meter or two; the coastal erosion of 5 to 10 m a year east of the port by the surveys (the breakwater of 1968 and the Akosombo dam's sand starvation the causes by the geologists) — the Aného shore's lost streets, the WACA coastal works of 2017–26 and the Gbodjomé groynes; the port's 16.6 m natural draft the depth that made it |
| Longest river | The Mono — about 467 km from the Alédjo hills near Sokodé south to the Bight of Benin at Grand-Popo, the Benin frontier for its last 100 km (the Nangbéto dam of 1987 with its 180 km² reservoir and 65 MW shared with Benin; the Adjarala dam long planned), navigable for 50 km in the season; the Oti (the Pendjari of Benin) — the north's river of the Volta basin running 520 km through the Savanes and Kara regions into Ghana's Lake Volta, the Kéran and the Kara its feeders; the Haho and the Zio of the Maritime plain into Lake Togo, the Anié and the Amou of the Plateaux into the Mono; the Kpalimé waterfalls (Womé, Kpimé); Lake Togo the lagoon of about 46 km² (Togoville on its north shore) and the Aného lagoon; the Volta itself the Ghana side |
| Largest lake | Lake Togo (Lac Togo) — the lagoon of about 46 km² behind the coastal bar 30 km east of Lomé, fed by the Haho and the Zio and open to the sea at Aného's channel, the water of the fishermen's pirogues, the Togoville of Nachtigal's treaty of 1884 and of the Vodun shrines on its north shore, the Agbodrafo (Porto Seguro) of the Portuguese on its south; the Aného lagoon (the Lac Boko) beyond it; the Nangbéto reservoir on the Mono (180 km², 1987) the largest water by area; the lagoon of Bè in Lomé; the Kéran's floodplains and the Oti's in the north; more than 200 small lakes by the geography page's count |
| Largest island | None of note — a coast without islands beyond the sand spits of the lagoons (the Agbodrafo and Aného bars), the Mono's river islets and the Oti's seasonal ones; the "islands" of the Togolese imagination the lagoon's fishing villages on stilts of the old Ganvié kind on the Benin side; the Nangbéto reservoir's wooded islands; the Lomé port's artificial breakwater the nearest thing to new land |
| Climate | Tropical savanna (Köppen Aw) over the whole country by the main count, the far south at the edge of the monsoon class — the coast two rainy seasons (April–July the big, September–November the small) with Lomé's 800–900 mm a year (the "dry" corner of the Dahomey Gap, the lowest rainfall of the Guinea coast by the climatologists), the Kloto and Akposso plateaus the wettest at 1,500–1,700 mm, the north one rainy season (May–October) of about 1,000 mm; 27.5–30 °C the means, the north's 40 °C of March; the harmattan of November–March the dust wind from the Sahara (the Savanes' hazy months, Lomé's few days); the sea breeze of the coast; the droughts of the north (1973, 1983), the floods of the Mono and the Oti (2007, 2008, 2010, 2024) |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the Mono's and the Oti's of the rainy months (the 2007 floods of the north that cut the RN1's bridges and left 20 dead and 127,000 affected by the counts; 2008 and 2010; the Savanes floods of September 2024; Lomé's lagoon quarters under water each August), coastal erosion (the shore east of the port losing 5–10 m a year), the droughts of the Savanes and the Sahel's edge, the harmattan's dust and the meningitis belt's season (the north in the dry months), the bushfires of the dry savanna; no earthquakes of record; the cholera of the coast (the outbreaks of the 2010s), the malaria of every season; the road crashes of the RN1 (the Centrale crash of 31 January 2026, ten dead; the Kozah crash of 8 March 2026, 14 dead and 58 injured by the record); the sea's rip currents of the Lomé beach |
| Nearby countries | Ghana (the long western line of 1919 that cut the Ewe in two — the Volta Region of the British Togoland that voted for Ghana on 9 May 1956; the Aflao–Lomé post the busiest, the Akanu, Kpalimé–Ho and Dapaong roads; the Ewe kin, the Accra trade, the Akosombo power imports), Benin (the Mono line and the Hillacondji–Sanvee Condji post on the coastal road to Cotonou and Lagos, the Nangbéto dam shared, the Mono biosphere, the coup attempt of December 2025 in Cotonou watched from Lomé), Burkina Faso (the 126–131 km of the far north at Cinkassé — the corridor of the Sahel trade to Ouagadougou that made Lomé the port of the AES states after the Niger–Benin border closed in 2023, the JNIM's border of the Savanes attacks, the refugees of 36,984 by the 2024 count); across the gulf Nigeria's Lagos 300 km east; Niger and Mali the corridor's far ends; the Togo–Sahel strategy of 2026–2028 unveiled in April 2026 |
| Minerals and resources | Phosphates — the Hahotoé–Kpogamé beds of the Maritime plateau mined since 1961 (the Compagnie Togolaise des Mines du Bénin nationalized in 1974, the SNPT since 2007; the washing plant and the Kpémé pier; about a million metric tons a year by the reports, among Africa's five producers; the Kpémé fertilizer-plant plans), limestone and clinker at Tabligbo (the Scantogo plant of HeidelbergCement and the West African Cement of the Lomé mills, the clinker exports to the region), marble at Gnaoulou and Pagala, iron ore at Bangéli (the old German workings), manganese at Nayéga in the Savanes (the Keras mine licensed 2019), gold in the north's artisanal pits, bauxite and uranium showings, the limestone of Aveta; the sand and gravel of the coast and the quarries of the Kara road; the oil blocks offshore drilled dry since the 2000s; the teak and the Kloto forests; the fish of the gulf; the arable 44% and the cotton, coffee and cocoa |
| Protected areas | Fazao-Malfakassa National Park (1975; 1,920 km², the largest — the forested hills of the Centrale Region's west with the elephants, buffalo, waterbuck and the Fazao hotel of the Swiss foundation's years), Kéran National Park (the Oti plain of the north, 1950 as a reserve, the park of 1971; the hippos and the floodplain), Togodo (the Mono's south, 1954), the Oti-Mandouri and Abdoulaye faunal reserves, the Alédjo and Djamdè reserves of the Kara road; the biosphere reserves of Oti-Keran/Oti-Mandouri (2011, transboundary with Benin's Pendjari–W) and the Mono delta (2017); four Ramsar sites; about 12% of the land in the protected rolls by the counts (the 1990–91 troubles' land seizures of the parks the reason for the smaller real figure the ecologists state — both stated); the Kloto forest reserve of Kpalimé, the Missahoé and the Yoto; the Koutammakou landscape of 2004 |
| Extreme points | North: the Burkina Faso tripoint area at Cinkassé in the Savanes (11°08′ N), the RN1's Cinkassé post on the Ouagadougou road the gate; South: the coast at Lomé's Aflao corner and the Hillacondji mouth (6°06′ N); East: the Mono's banks of the Lacs Prefecture (1°48′ E) toward Grand-Popo; West: the Ghana line west of Badou in the Plateaux at 0°09′ W, where the prime meridian passes through the far west by the measure; Lomé at 6°08′ N, 1°13′ E; the center of the country near Sokodé |
| Land and water | Land 54,390 km², water 2,400 km² (4.2%) — the lagoons, Lake Togo, the Nangbéto reservoir, the Mono and the Oti; arable 44.2% by the land-use count (the maize, yam and cassava fields of the south and center, the cotton and sorghum of the north; the family farms of about two hectares), the permanent crops (coffee, cocoa, oil palm, cashew) about 4%, the pasture 18%, the forest about a quarter by the FAO's count (the tree-cover loss of 82,074 ha over 2001–24, 14.9% of the 2000 cover, by the satellite count); the coast's 56 km and the territorial sea of 12 nautical miles, the exclusive economic zone of about 15,000 km² (the maritime boundary with Ghana and Benin undisputed); the fishing pirogues of the Lomé beach and the Chinese trawlers' licenses |
| Islands and coasts | The 56 km of the Bight of Benin — the Lomé beach of the Marina and the fishing fleet, the port's breakwaters (1968, extended 2014 for the LCT) and the Kpémé phosphate pier, the Agbodrafo (Porto Seguro) of the Portuguese fort's memory, the Aného of the slave forts and the German capital (the old cemetery, the Glidji kingdom's Epe Ekpe), the Hillacondji mouth of the Mono; the coconut groves and the beach resorts of Baguida and Avépozo, the Aflao boundary beach with Ghana; the erosion of 5–10 m a year east of the port and the WACA works; the Ganvié-like stilt villages of the Benin side absent on this one; the Lomé Marina's "Plage de Lomé" the Sunday crowd |
| The country | A strip from the Sahel's edge to the sea — the Savanes of the north with the Oti plain, the Gourma and Moba villages, Dapaong's escarpment and the Burkina gate at Cinkassé; the Kabye hills of Kara with the terraced fields and the takienta towers of Koutammakou; the Tem and Bassar country of the center with the Fazao forest and the Alédjo gorge; the Plateaux of coffee, cocoa and the Togo Mountains above Kpalimé with Mont Agou; the Maritime plain of maize and oil palm, the phosphate plateau, Lake Togo's lagoon and the Vodun villages; Lomé on the sand bar with its port, its Grand Marché and its border; the RN1 the spine of 650 km from the port to Ouagadougou's road; the Ewe of the south, the Kabye of the north, the French of the state, the 40 tongues of the markets |
People
| Population | 8,095,498 at the census of November 2022 (INSEED's fifth general census of population and housing) — 6,191,155 in 2010, 2,719,567 in 1981, 1,440,000 in 1960; 9,583,381 by the UN's estimate for 2024 (the 101st country) and about 9.9 million by its 2026 projection — the census and the estimates both stated; the Maritime Region about 45% of the people (Grand Lomé 2.2 million), Plateaux about 17%, Kara and Centrale about 10% each, Savanes about 13% and rising; a young country — about 40% under 15, 60% under 25, 3.6% over 65, the median age about 20 |
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| Growth rate | About 2.5% a year by the 2024 estimates (31.9 births and 5.3 deaths per 1,000; 2.48% by the demographics page's count) — the population doubling about every 28 years, four times that of 1960; the fertility falling from more than 6 in the 1980s to 4.2; the emigration to Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon and Europe (the exiles of 1993 — more than 300,000 fled by the UN count — and of 2005), the immigration of the Sahel's traders and the refugees of Burkina Faso (36,984 by the 2024 count in the Savanes); the UN's projection about 15 million by 2050 |
| Fertility rate | 4.23 children per woman by the 2024 estimate the demographics page carries (about 4.2 by the UN's 2023 count) — 6.6 in the early 1980s, 5.2 by the survey of 1998, 4.8 by the 2013–14 survey; the contraceptive use about a quarter of the married women, the family-planning program of the health ministry and the UNFPA; the first births at about 20; the north's rates above the south's, Lomé's about 3; the maternity leave of 14 weeks; the child marriage of the north the rights groups' concern |
| Life expectancy | 71.4 years by the 2024 estimate the demographics page carries (68.8 for men, 74.0 for women) against about 62 by the UN's life tables of 2023 — both stated, the gap the method's; 40 at independence; infant mortality 41 per 1,000 by the 2024 estimate; the malaria of every season the first killer of the children (the RTS,S vaccine rollout of 2024), the HIV prevalence about 1.9% of adults (the ARV program), the maternal deaths; the universal health insurance (AMU) of 2024 built on the civil servants' INAM of 2011 and the School Assur of 2017; the CHU Sylvanus Olympio of Lomé (the Tokoin hospital), the CHU of Kara, the Catholic hospitals of Afagnan (the Saint John of God) and the north; the traditional healers and the Vodun priests of the villages |
| Age structure | 0–14 years about 40%, 15–64 about 56%, 65 and over 3.6% by the 2024 estimates — the median age about 20; the school-age bulge (the free primary schooling of 2008), the youth unemployment the protests' fuel (the "Gen Z" of June 2025 by the press's name), the "bras valides" of the motorcycle-taxi trade; the pensions of the CNSS for the formal workers (about a tenth of the labor force) and the CRT for the civil servants; the elders' councils of the villages and the chiefs (the canton chiefs of the colonial order kept) |
| Urbanization | About 45% urban by the UN's 2024 count (37.7% at the census of 2010 — both stated), Grand Lomé's 2.2 million the primate city of a quarter of the people and most of the economy, the coastal corridor from Aflao to Aného one built-up ribbon; the regional capitals of Sokodé, Kara, Atakpamé, Dapaong and Tsévié below 100,000 each; the migration south to Lomé and the Plateaux farms (the Kabye since the 1920s, the Savanes since the 2000s), the Ghana and Nigeria circuits; the zemidjans (the motorcycle taxis) of Lomé's streets, the Hédzranawoé market, the Bè and Nyékonakpoè quarters of the June 2025 barricades |
| Ethnic groups | The Ewe-Mina-Aja group about 42% by the 2013–14 survey's count the infobox carries (the Ewe about 21% and the Tem-Kotokoli about 22% by the demographics page's — both stated): the Ewe of the Maritime and Plateaux south (the Notsé migration of the 17th century, the Volta's kin), the Mina (Guin) of Lomé and Aného (the Elmina and Accra migrants of the 17th century, the trading families of the Olympios, the Lawsons, the Adjallés and the Nana Benz), the Aja of Tado; the Kabye-Tem group about 26% (the Kabye of Kara and Pya — Eyadéma's and the army's people — and the Tem of Sokodé), the Gourma-Moba-Akan group about 17% (the Gourmantché and Moba of the Savanes, the Anufo of Mango), the Akposso and Akebu 4%, the Ana-Ifè 3%, the Bassar, Konkomba, Lamba, Nawdba, Batammariba; the Hausa, Yoruba and Fulani traders; the Lebanese and the French of Lomé; the north–south line of the politics (the Kabye officers, the Ewe opposition) — the two readings of the country stated (LAW 2) |
| Languages | French official (the OIF's about 40% speakers; the schools' medium from the first grade, the press, the courts); Ewe (about 3 million in Togo, the south's and the market's; the Bremen mission's standard of the 1850s; Mina/Gen its coastal cousin and Lomé's lingua franca) and Kabiyè (about a million; the Kara region's, the army's) the national languages of 1975 taught in the schools; Tem (Kotokoli) the north's second trade tongue with Hausa, Moba, Gourmantché, Bassar (Ntcham), Konkomba, Lamba, Nawdm, Akposso, Ifè, Aja, Anufo, Ditammari (the Batammariba's); about 40 languages by the ethnologists' count, the Gbe (Kwa) family in the south and the Gur family in the north; English the Commonwealth's since 2022 and the Ghana trade's; Arabic of the Quranic schools; Togolese Sign Language |
| Religion | Christianity about 50% (the 2025 estimate), 42.3% by the older count — both stated: the Catholics the largest church (the archdiocese of Lomé and the dioceses of Aného, Atakpamé, Kpalimé, Sokodé, Kara and Dapaong; the Afagnan hospital; the Catholic schools), the Evangelical Presbyterians of the Bremen mission, the Methodists of the Aného coast, the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal churches of Lomé's new quarters; the traditional religions about 33% (36.9% by the older count) — Vodun of the Ewe-Mina-Aja south (the Akodessewa market, the Epe Ekpe stone of Glidji each September, the Togoville shrines), the Kabye's earth and ancestor rites of the Evala, the Batammariba's of the takienta; Islam about 16% (14%) — the Tem of Sokodé, the Anufo of Mango, the Hausa and Fulani of the north, the Union Musulmane du Togo, the Sokodé central mosque; the Baháʼí 1%; the secular state of Article 1 |
| Health | The universal health insurance (Assurance Maladie Universelle) launched in 2024 on the INAM of 2011 (the civil servants) and the School Assur of 2017 (the pupils) — about a third of the people covered by the 2026 counts; the CHU Sylvanus Olympio (Tokoin, Lomé; the hospital of the June 2025 wounded by the accounts), the CHU Kara, the Dogta-Lafiè hospital of Lomé (2023, the Chinese-built), the regional hospitals, the Afagnan Saint John of God hospital of the Catholic brothers (1964); malaria the first cause of death (the RTS,S vaccine from 2024), HIV about 1.9% of adults (the peak of 6% in the 1990s), the polio-free certification of 2020, the yellow-fever and meningitis campaigns of the north; the COVID-19 toll of 290 by the official count (the first case 6 March 2020, the Novissi cash transfers by mobile money the model the World Bank cites); the doctors about one per 10,000; the traditional healers' order |
| Education | Free and compulsory primary schooling since the decree of 2008 (the fees abolished; the enrollment above 90%), the secondary of the lycées and the technical colleges; literacy about 67% by the counts (the men 80%, the women 55%); the University of Lomé (1970; the Université du Bénin to 2001; about 60,000 students, the campus of the 1990–91 strikes), the University of Kara (2004), the Catholic University of West Africa's Lomé unit, the Lomé Business School, the private universities; the baccalauréat of the French model, the Ewe and Kabiyè of the primary years; the Catholic and Protestant schools of the missions since the 1840s; the student unions of the June 2025 days |
| Migrants and diaspora | The Togolese abroad about a million by the common estimates (two million by the diaspora's own) — Ghana (the Ewe kin of the Volta and the Accra traders), Nigeria, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, France (about 30,000), Germany (the Togoland memory and the 1990s asylum), the United States (the June 6 Movement's diaspora voices — Farida Nabourema, the bloggers), Canada; the exiles of 1993 (300,000 to Ghana and Benin by the UN count, most returned) and of 2005 (40,000); the remittances about a tenth of GDP by the World Bank's count; the immigrants — the Sahel's traders and herders, the Beninese and Nigerians of the markets, the Lebanese merchants, the Chinese of the works, the French of the companies, the refugees from Burkina Faso in the Savanes (36,984 registered by March 2024) and the 8,986 displaced of the north; the US travel restriction of 4 June 2025 on Togolese nationals (partial; in force 9 June) |
| Social indicators | HDI 0.571 (2023; 161st of 193), "medium" since 2020 by the UN's class; Gini 43.1 (2015); poverty 55.1% below the national line (2015) and 45.5% by the 2018–19 survey the government cites — both stated; the minimum wage (SMIG) 52,500 CFA francs a month since January 2023 (35,000 before); the informal sector nine-tenths of the jobs; electricity to about 60% of the households by the 2024 count (the CIZO solar-kit program of 2017 for the villages), piped water to about 60%; the mobile money of Flooz and TMoney in every market; the Novissi transfers of 2020; the cost of living the 2025 protests' grievance (the electricity tariff raised in 2025 and cut back on 10 September 2025 after the June days; the fuel prices raised 11 September 2026 — gasoline to 817 francs a liter from 725) |
| Cities and provinces | Five regions, 39 prefectures and 117 communes (the law of 2017, the elections of 30 June 2019 — the first municipal vote since 1987 — and of 17 July 2025 with UNIR's 75% and the low turnout of the boycott); Lomé's 13 communes of Grand Lomé under the autonomous district's governor; the regional capitals Tsévié, Atakpamé, Sokodé, Kara, Dapaong; the towns of Kpalimé, Aného, Vogan, Tabligbo, Notsé (the Ewe's Agbogbo-Za festival each September), Badou, Blitta, Bassar, Niamtougou, Mango, Cinkassé; the Savanes under the security emergency since 13 June 2022 (extended to 13 March 2027); the canton chiefs and the traditional kings of Notsé, Glidji and Tado beside the prefects |
| Names and customs | The Ewe and Mina day names — Kodjo (Monday), Komlan (Tuesday), Kokou (Wednesday), Yao (Thursday), Kofi (Friday), Kwami (Saturday), Kossi (Sunday) for the boys, Adjo, Abla, Aku, Yawa, Afi, Ama, Akossiwa for the girls — on the ministers' lists (Kodjo Adedze, Komi Klassou, Yawa Tségan); the Kabye names (Essozimna, Hodabalo, Calixte of the Catholic north); the French first names of the baptisms; the wax-print pagnes and the kete; the Vodun's initiation convents and the "legba" at the gates; the Evala wrestling that makes a Kabye man (the July initiation at Kara the President attends), the Epe Ekpe stone of Glidji (September) whose color foretells the year, the Agbogbo-Za of Notsé, the Ayizan of Lomé; the chiefs' stools; the funerals of the weekends; the greetings in the market's Mina ("Ɛ fɔ̃a?"); the zemidjan hail |
| Media and sport culture | The state's Télévision Togolaise (TVT, 1973) and Radio Lomé (1953), Radio Kara; the private radios of the 1990s' opening (Nana FM, Radio Nostalgie, Kanal FM), the private TV of TV7 and New World TV (the Lomé-based pay-TV of the African football rights since 2021); the papers Togo-Presse (the state daily since 1962), L'Alternative (Ferdinand Ayité's, of the 2021 prosecutions), Liberté, Le Correcteur; RFI and France 24 suspended for three months from 16 June 2025 by the audiovisual authority (HAAC) for "bias" by its order; the press code of 2020; TikTok and Facebook the June 2025 movement's rooms (the internet restrictions by the rights groups' accounts); the Éperviers on New World TV, the Evala on TVT, the Togolese music of Bella Bellow (1945–73), King Mensah, Toofan's "Gweta" of 2014, Almok, the rapper Aamron of the 2025 arrests; Lomé's film and music festivals of the dry season |
Government
| System | Unitary parliamentary republic under the constitution of the Fifth Republic — the bill of March 2024 passed by the outgoing Assembly on 25 March, held for "consultations" after the outcry, passed again on 19 April 2024 (89 of 91 present) and promulgated by Faure Gnassingbé on 6 May 2024, in force at the new Parliament's seating of 3 May 2025: the head of state elected by Parliament for four years (once renewable), the executive a President of the Council of Ministers who is the leader of the Assembly's majority for the legislature's six years with no cap on renewal, the Assembly's six-year term, the new Senate, the Constitutional Court of nine; the government's case — a parliamentary system of the Westminster and Berlin kind that ends the winner-takes-all presidency — and the opposition's, the bishops' and the June 6 Movement's — a "constitutional coup" that lifts the two-term limit of 2019 and keeps a family of 59 years in power without a popular vote — both stated (LAW 2); the referendum of 27 September 1992 on the Fourth Republic's charter (98.1% for) the last vote on a constitution; no referendum on the fifth |
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| Head of state | President Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové (since 3 May 2025) — the ceremonial office of the new charter: the promulgation of the laws, the accreditation of ambassadors, the honors, the formal appointment of the President of the Council on the Assembly's choice; elected by the National Assembly on 3 May 2025 (unanimous, the sole candidate), born 7 May 1939 in Lomé, the party man of the 1970s–80s who left the RPT in 1986, the democratic movement of 1990–91, the PDU of the 1990s, the opposition's prime-minister nominee of 1993 refused by Eyadéma — his election by the government's majority the "opening" in its account and the "window dressing" in the opposition's — both stated (LAW 2); the oldest head of state ever elected by the record and among the oldest serving; the Presidents before him — Sylvanus Olympio (1960–63), Nicolas Grunitzky (1963–67), Gnassingbé Eyadéma (1967–2005), Faure Gnassingbé (2005–25) |
| Head of government | President of the Council of Ministers Faure Gnassingbé (since 3 May 2025) — the executive: the Council of Ministers, the army's command, the appointments, the policy, the foreign relations; chosen as the leader of the Assembly's majority (UNIR's 108 of 113) for the legislature's six years, renewable without limit by the charter's text — the office the opposition calls a presidency for life and the government a prime ministership — both stated (LAW 2); the government of 8 October 2025 (27 members: 17 ministers and 10 deputies; the "rationalization" of the portfolios; the defense attached to the President of the Council's office) after the transition cabinet of 21 August 2024 of 35; the Council on Tuesdays; Faure the chair of ECOWAS's authority in 2017–18, the African Union's mediator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda since April 2025, the host of the Lomé Peace and Security Forum, the visitor to Moscow of 18–19 November 2025; the Savanes war his first file |
| Legislature | The National Assembly — 113 seats by the proportional list in 39 prefectural constituencies, the six-year term of the new charter; the seventh legislature of 29 April 2024 (the Fifth Republic's first): UNIR 108 (+49), ADDI 2, ANC 1 (−6), DMP 1, FDR 1; turnout 61.76%; the Speaker Komi Sélom Klassou (UNIR; the Prime Minister of 2015–20) since 28 October 2025 by 103 of 103, after Kodjo Adedze (14 June 2024 – 8 October 2025) went to the urban-planning ministry; the votes of 19 April 2024 on the charter, of 3 May 2025 on the President and of 2 March 2026 on the Savanes emergency; the Senate — 61 (41 elected 15 February 2025 by the municipal and regional councillors: UNIR 34, the opposition and independents 7; 20 appointed by the head of government), six-year terms, the first sitting 6 March 2025, the President Barry Moussa Barqué (UNIR's old guard, the minister of the 1990s) since 3 April 2025; the Assembly building on the Place de l'Indépendance (the Palais des Congrès the Senate's) |
| Parties | The Union for the Republic (UNIR; 2012, the heir of Eyadéma's Rally of the Togolese People of 1969) — Faure's party with 108 of 113 Assembly seats, 34 of the 41 elected senators, 137 of the 179 regional councillors and 75% of the municipal vote of 17 July 2025; the opposition — the National Alliance for Change (ANC; Jean-Pierre Fabre, the 2010 and 2015 runner-up; 1 seat), the Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development (ADDI; Aimé Gogué; 2), the Democratic Forces for the Republic (FDR; Dodji Apévon; 1), the Dynamic for the Majority of the People (DMP; the Kodjo faction; 1), the Union of Forces for Change (UFC; Gilchrist Olympio's old party, in the government since 2010), the Democratic Convention of African Peoples (CDPA; Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson), the Pan-African National Party (PNP; Tikpi Atchadam, the 2017 marches), the Party of Democrats for Unity (PDU; Savi de Tové's); the civic fronts — "Touche pas à ma constitution" ("Hands off my constitution"), "Sauvons le Togo" ("Let's save Togo"), the June 6 Movement (M66) of 2025 with its diaspora voices (Farida Nabourema, Yves Edoh Agbodjan the spokesman, the rapper Aamron, Ferdinand Ayité) and its arrest warrants of 9 July 2025; the Catholic bishops' letters — the majority's and the opposition's cases both stated (LAW 2) |
| Judiciary | The Supreme Court (the judicial and administrative chambers), the Constitutional Court of nine (the certifier of the elections and the charter's guard; its reading of the 2024 text the opposition contests — both stated, LAW 2), the Court of Appeal of Lomé and of Kara, the courts of first instance of the prefectures, the High Court of Justice for the ministers, the Court of Audit (2009); the death penalty abolished by the law of 23 June 2009 (the last execution 1978); the "incitement to revolt" and "offense to the head of state" charges of 2025 (Marguerite Gnakade, the former defense minister and the President's sister-in-law, arrested 17 September 2025; Aamron's June and September arrests; the 100-odd of July 2025 by the counts) — the prosecutors' and the rights groups' accounts both stated; the Lomé civil prison at several times its capacity by the counts; the magistrates' strikes of the 2010s; the OHADA business law of the WAEMU; the Mediator of the Republic; the CNDH human-rights commission |
| Administrative divisions | Five regions — Maritime (Tsévié), Plateaux (Atakpamé), Centrale (Sokodé), Kara (Kara), Savanes (Dapaong) — of 39 prefectures (the Golfe and Agoè-Nyivé of Lomé among them) and 117 communes under elected councils since 30 June 2019 (the second vote 17 July 2025), the Grand Lomé autonomous district of 13 communes with a governor; the prefects and the regional governors appointed by the Council; the regional councils of 179 elected 29 April 2024; the canton chiefs (the chefferie traditionnelle of the law of 2007) and the village chiefs under them; the Savanes emergency's military governor by the decree of 2022; the Kabye and Ewe "home regions" of the politics |
| Constitution and rights | The Fifth Republic's charter of 2024–25 — the rights of the 1992 text carried (the freedoms of the press, assembly and association, the abolition of the death penalty of 2009 made constitutional), the authorization regime for demonstrations under the law of 2011 as amended in 2019 (the bans of April 2024 and June–December 2025), the press code of 2020 and the HAAC's suspensions (RFI and France 24, 16 June – September 2025), the cybersecurity law of 2018, the internet restrictions of June–July 2025 by the rights groups' accounts; the 2025 arrests (the 9 July warrants for the M66's figures abroad, the 17 September arrest of Marguerite Gnakade, the 3 October arrest of Grâce Koumayi Biyoki), the Amnesty and FIDH reports of "savage crackdown" against the government's "destabilization attempt" — both stated (LAW 2); the 2019 two-term limit of the amendment of 8 May 2019 (with the reset that allowed 2020 and 2025) and its end in the 2024 text; same-sex relations criminal (Article 392, three years); the women's quota of the 2022 law; the voting age 18; the Commonwealth's and the OIF's charters signed |
| Military | The Togolese Armed Forces (FAT) — about 9,000 by the IISS's count (8,550 by the older rolls): the army of the Kara and Lomé garrisons (the Kabye officer corps since Eyadéma, the Tchitchao and Kamina barracks), the air force of Niamtougou and Lomé (the Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos bought in 2024–25 for the Savanes war by the reports, the Mi-17s and the drones), the navy of the Lomé base (the patrol boats of the Gulf of Guinea piracy watch), the gendarmerie of 2,000; the defense budget about 2% of GDP; the volunteer ranks; Operation Koundjoaré of 2018 on the Burkina line turned the Savanes' counter-insurgency (the state of emergency of 13 June 2022, extended on 2 March 2026 to 13 March 2027 — the fifth renewal), the attacks since Sanloaga of 9–10 November 2021 (the Kpékankandi attack of 10–11 May 2022 with eight soldiers killed by JNIM's claim, the July 2022 villages with about 20 civilians dead, the 31 dead of the official count by November 2023 against the 66 of ACLED's for the first half of 2023 alone — both stated); the ECOWAS standby, the UN missions of Mali and the Congo, the peacekeepers' deaths of 2019–23; the Russian Africa Corps presence of about 300 since January 2026 reported by the monitoring group All Eyes on Wagner (September 2026) and not confirmed by Lomé — both stated (LAW 2); the French cooperation; the coup of 1963 and 1967 the army's record |
| Foreign relations | The UN's member since 20 September 1960; the African Union; ECOWAS's founder (Lagos, 28 May 1975; Faure its chair 2017–18, the Lomé summits) and the "only channel" between the community and the Alliance of Sahel States of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that quit it in January 2025 — Lomé the port of the three since the Niger–Benin border closed in 2023, the Togo–Sahel strategy of 2026–2028 (April 2026), Robert Dussey's talk of joining the AES (2025) and the government's denial of an exit from ECOWAS — both stated (LAW 2); the WAEMU and the BCEAO; the OIF (the Francophonie) and the Commonwealth (the 56th member with Gabon on 25 June 2022 — the first of no British past since Mozambique and Rwanda); the OIC (1997); France (the old protector; the RFI/France 24 suspension of 2025; the Dussey critiques), Germany (the Togoland memory and the development aid), China (the Dogta-Lafiè hospital, the airport works of 2024, the Lomé–Ouagadougou corridor's loans), the United States (the Millennium Challenge threshold program; the travel restriction of 4 June 2025; AGOA), Russia (Faure in Moscow 18–19 November 2025, the embassies' reopening, the defense minister Belousov in Lomé in March 2026 by the reports) — the ties by the record; Ghana (the Ewe line, the Volta question settled in 1956), Benin (the Mono dam, the coup attempt of 7 December 2025 in Cotonou that ECOWAS and Lomé condemned), Burkina Faso (the Damiba extradition of 20 January 2026 on Ouagadougou's request); the Lomé Convention of 1975 (the EU–ACP pact to 2000), the Lomé Peace Accord of 1999 (Sierra Leone); the visa-free entry for every African's 30 days from 18 May 2026; the US–Togo and Chinese embassies of the Boulevard du 13 Janvier |
| Police and security | The Togolese National Police and the gendarmerie (about 2,000) under the security ministry (Colonel Calixte Madjoulba since October 2025; Damehane Yark the general of the ministry of 2012–25); the Savanes emergency since 13 June 2022 (the curfew, the gathering bans, the checkpoints, the 8 p.m. closures) with the 36,984 Burkinabè refugees and the 8,986 displaced by the March 2024 counts, the development fund of the north's emergency program (PURS) against JNIM's incursions — "peripheral theater" of the group's expansion by the Crisis Group's reading of 2026; the June 2025 crackdown in Lomé (seven dead by the rights groups' count, 14 by the civil society's, the government's account of drownings and "destabilization" — all stated, LAW 2), the 100-plus arrests of June–July 2025, the 119–125 of 21–22 August, the "Togo mort" of 30 August, the 8 December show of force; the Gulf of Guinea piracy watch of the Lomé navy; the drugs (the 2024 cocaine seizures at the port); the road police of the RN1; the Lomé prison |
| Elections | The vote at 18 under the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) — the Assembly election of 29 April 2024 (UNIR 108 of 113; turnout 61.76%; the first under the new charter's six-year term, the next due by 2030), the regional councils the same day (UNIR 137 of 179), the Senate's indirect vote of 15 February 2025 (UNIR 34 of 41), the Presidency's parliamentary vote of 3 May 2025 (Savi de Tové unanimous), the municipal vote of 17 July 2025 (UNIR 75% of the 1,150 seats; the low turnout and the M66's disruption call — both sides stated, LAW 2); the last direct presidential vote 22 February 2020 (Faure 70.8%, Agbéyomé Kodjo 19.5% — his claim of victory, his arrest and his exile; the Catholic bishops' observers excluded), 2015 (58.8% to Fabre's 35%), 2010 (60.9%), 2005 (60.2% and the violence); the opposition's boycotts of 1993, 1999 and 2018; the referendum of 1992 the last on a charter; the municipal elections of 2019 the first since 1987 — the opposition's charge of a system without a popular vote for the executive and the government's answer of the parliamentary model both stated (LAW 2) |
| The Fifth Republic in dates | 25 March 2024 — the Assembly passes the new constitution; 3 April — the vote postponed for "consultations"; 19 April — passed again (89 of 91); 29 April — the Assembly and regional elections; 6 May 2024 — the charter promulgated; 14 June — Adedze Speaker; 21 August — the transition cabinet of 35; 15 February 2025 — the Senate's election; 6 March — the Senate's first sitting; 3 April — Barqué its President; 3 May 2025 — the Fifth Republic in force, Savi de Tové President, Faure President of the Council, the Prime Minister's post gone; 26 May — Aamron arrested; 5–6 June — the first protests; 16 June — RFI and France 24 suspended; 26–28 June — the Lomé days and the deaths; 9 July — the M66 warrants; 17 July — the municipal vote; 10 September — the electricity tariff cut; 17 September — Gnakade arrested; 8 October — the government of 27; 28 October — Klassou Speaker; 18–19 November — Faure in Moscow; 8 December — the M66's day blocked; 20 January 2026 — Damiba extradited; 2 March 2026 — the Savanes emergency to March 2027; 18 May 2026 — Africa's visa-free entry; 17 September 2026 — the 2026–2031 roadmap's final review — the two sides of every step stated (LAW 2) |
| Current issues | The Fifth Republic's legitimacy (the parliamentary model against the "constitutional coup" charge; the M66's online campaign after the December 2025 blockade; the exiles' warrants) — both cases stated (LAW 2); the Savanes war (the emergency to March 2027, JNIM's incursions, the refugees and the displaced, the north's economy); the cost of living (the fuel rise of 11 September 2026 to 817 francs a liter of gasoline, the electricity tariff, the youth unemployment); the port's boom and the Sahel corridor (the AES trade, the Russian reports, the ECOWAS channel); the IMF's Extended Credit Facility of 2024 and the debt about 68% of GDP; the 2026–2031 roadmap ("Protect, Unite, Transform"); the phosphate plant and the Nayéga manganese; the coastal erosion; the press and the internet; the Éperviers' rebuilding under Neveu for the 2027 AFCON qualifiers — the government's and the opposition's readings of each both stated (LAW 2) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | US$10.02 billion by the IMF's 2025 estimate (151st of the world; about 5.8 trillion CFA francs at the peg) — US$9.77 billion in 2024; about US$1,050 a head (171st); a low-income economy by the World Bank's class (the "10th-poorest" of the IMF's old rank the Economy page cites — the rank of the 2010s), the Lomé port and the transit trade the engine, agriculture the people's; the Grand Lomé about 60% of the output by the counts; the GDP per head about half of Ghana's and a third of Côte d'Ivoire's, below Benin's by the IMF's lines |
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| GDP (PPP) | US$33.05 billion by the IMF's 2025 estimate (147th), US$3,470 a head (166th) — US$30.56 billion and US$3,290 in 2024; the growth of 5–6% a year since 2017 (5.6% in 2023, 5.3% in 2024) the WAEMU's steady middle; the phosphate boom of the 1970s (the GDP of the "Switzerland of Africa" talk under Eyadéma), the crash of the 1980s and the structural adjustment of 1983, the lost decade of 1990–2005 (the aid freeze of the EU from 1993 to 2007 after the massacre), the recovery since the Global Political Agreement of 2006 and the HIPC debt relief of 2010 |
| Growth and inflation | Growth 5.3% in 2025 by the IMF's count the Economy page carries against 6.2% by the National Credit Council's of 23 March 2026 — both stated; 6.5% projected for 2026 by the Council (the finance minister Essowè Georges Barcola: "we have anticipated these shocks"), the WAEMU zone's 6.1% by the BCEAO's September 2026 view; inflation 2.7% in 2024, 0.4% in 2025 (the zone's deflation scare of early 2026, the BCEAO's cut) and 1.8% projected for 2026 by the Council — the fuel rise of 11 September 2026 (gasoline to 817 francs a liter from 725, the diesel with it) the BCEAO's named upside risk; the risks the Council flagged — the hydrocarbon prices, the fertilizer costs, the sea and air logistics, the regional markets |
| Monetary policy and the franc | The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO, Dakar; the Lomé national branch) — the policy rate 3.00% since the cut of March 2026 (from 3.25% of June 2025, 3.50% before), held on 9 September 2026 with the zone's inflation at 0.4% in the second quarter and about 1% projected for the year; the CFA franc at 655.957 to the euro (the peg of 1999; 100 to the French franc from the 50% devaluation of 12 January 1994), about 583 to the dollar on 2 October 2026 (the euro at 1.1256) — the strong-euro years the exporters' complaint, the reform of December 2019 that took the reserves out of Paris and the French seat off the board (the guarantee kept), the "eco" single currency of ECOWAS's plan since 2019 still a plan; the WAEMU's regional bond market (the UMOA-Titres) where Togo borrows, the Lomé-based BOAD (the West African Development Bank, 1973) and the regional stock exchange of Abidjan (BRVM; Togo's Ecobank the listed giant) |
| Public finances | The budget of 2025 about 2,397 billion CFA francs by the finance law and the 2026 one above it, the deficit about 3% of GDP under the WAEMU's rule after the 6–8% of the pandemic years; the public debt about 68% of GDP by the IMF's 2025 count (the HIPC relief of 2010 wiped the old stock; the domestic bonds of the regional market the new one); the IMF's Extended Credit Facility of March 2024 (US$390 million over 42 months by the approval; the reviews of 2025–26), the earlier ECF of 2017–20 (US$238 million); the Office Togolais des Recettes (OTR, 2014; the customs of the port most of the take — about three-quarters of the tax revenue by the port's own claim); the VAT 18%; the subsidies of the fuel fund and the fertilizer; the CFA's fiscal rules; the Eurobond talk and the regional issues; the pension funds CNSS and CRT |
| Structure and labor | Services about 50% of the output (the port, the transit trade, the telecoms, the banks — Ecobank's headquarters of 1985, the BOAD, the Orabank of Lomé, the Lomé free zone of 1989 with its 50-odd firms), agriculture about 28% (2017 counts) with about two-thirds of the jobs (69% by the 2008 labor count), industry about 22% (the phosphates, the cement and clinker, the breweries, the Lomé free zone's textiles and plastics, the cotton ginning of the NSCT); the labor force about 3.8 million (2020), unemployment 4% by the headline and the underemployment of the informal nine-tenths; the minimum wage 52,500 francs a month (2023); the Nana Benz tradition of the women traders; the zemidjan riders; the migrant labor to Ghana and Gabon; the port's dockers; the public service of about 60,000 |
| Trade | Exports about US$1.0 billion by the 2017 count the Economy page carries (the re-exports of the port the largest line, then cotton, phosphates and clinker, coffee and cocoa, the free zone's goods — about US$2 billion with the transit by the later customs counts), imports about US$2.0 billion (2017; the fuel, the machinery, the food, the Chinese goods of the markets) — the deficit the port's transit covers; the partners — Benin 17.5%, Burkina Faso 15.9% and India 7.6% of the exports (the Sahel the market; India the phosphate buyer), China 22.9%, Belgium 20.3% and the Netherlands 11.9% of the imports (2017); the AGOA of the United States, the EU's EPA talks, the ECOWAS and WAEMU free trade, the AfCFTA; the Lomé port's 2.06 million TEU of 2024 the region's transshipment record; the smuggling of the Nigerian fuel and the Ghana rice the border's trade |
| Agriculture | The family farms of about two hectares on 44% of the land — maize (about 900,000 metric tons), cassava (about a million), yams (about 860,000; the fufu of the south), sorghum and millet of the north, rice (the Kara and Oti valleys), beans, groundnuts, the oil palm and coconut of the coast, the market gardens of Lomé; cotton the cash crop of the center and north — about 80,000 metric tons of seed cotton in 2025–26 (60,403 the season before; 127,000 the 2018 peak) by the New Cotton Company of Togo (NSCT, the state's with Olam's stake of 2020), the 105,000-ton target for 2026–27 at 300 francs a kilogram to the growers; coffee (about 20,000 metric tons) and cocoa (about 40,000) of the Kloto, Akposso and Litimé plateaus (the robusta of the German trials, the cocoa of the Ghana line); cashew of the center (the new export), shea butter of the north's women, the pineapple and the soy of the organic exporters (the world's largest organic-soy exporter by the trade's claim of 2021), the teak; the livestock of the Savanes and the Fulani herds; the fish of the lagoons and the gulf; the MIFA agricultural-finance mechanism of 2018; the fertilizer subsidies |
| Industry | Phosphates — the SNPT's Hahotoé and Kpogamé pits and the Kpémé plant and pier (about a million metric tons a year by the reports; the 1970s' 3 million the peak; the carbonate beds of Bassar untouched; the fertilizer-plant projects of 2024–26); cement and clinker — the Tabligbo limestone (Scantogo of HeidelbergCement, the clinker mill of 1.5 million metric tons), the Lomé grinding mills (WACEM, Cimtogo), the Diamond Cement; the Lomé free zone (1989; the textiles, plastics, wigs, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals of the 50-odd firms for the regional market), the Brasserie BB (1964) of the BB lager and the Coca-Cola bottler, the NSCT's ginneries, the sugar of Anié, the palm oil mills, the Lomé refinery that never ran (the STE's depot the fuel's gate), the Adétikopé industrial platform (PIA, 2021; the cotton-to-textile park of the Arise group with the garment plants), the steel of the Lomé rolling mills; the manganese of Nayéga (Keras, licensed 2019), the marble of Gnaoulou; the construction of the Chinese and Turkish firms; the solar panels' assembly of the Blitta years |
| Tourism | About 1 million visitors a year by the ministry's counts before the pandemic (the regional business travelers of Lomé the bulk), the Lomé–Tokoin airport's 1.5 million passengers of 2024 (+6.2%) the gate; the draws — Koutammakou's takienta towers (2004 World Heritage), the Kpalimé hills (Mont Agou, Mount Klouto's butterflies, the Womé falls, the coffee farms), the Lomé beach and the Grand Marché, the Akodessewa fetish market, Togoville and Lake Togo, Aného's colonial streets and the Glidji festival, the Fazao-Malfakassa park and the Kéran, the Evala of Kara in July, the Sokodé fire dances (the Adossa), the Notsé walls; the hotels of the 2 Février (the 1980 tower of 102 m, the tallest building, reopened 2016 as the Radisson Blu) and the Lomé Marina; the Savanes off-limits by the emergency and the travel advisories; the visa-free entry for Africans of 18 May 2026 and the e-visa; the "Togo, the smile of Africa" of the board |
| Energy | Electricity to about 60% of the households by the 2024 count (the CIZO solar kits of 2017 for the villages, the rural electrification agency) — the supply about 60% imported from Ghana (the VRA's Akosombo), Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria through the CEB (the Benin–Togo power company of 1968) and the WAPP grid; the Nangbéto dam (1987; 65 MW with Benin), the ContourGlobal Lomé thermal plant (2010; 100 MW, the heavy fuel and gas), the Kékéli Efficient Power plant of Lomé (2021; 65 MW, the gas of the West African Gas Pipeline from Nigeria), the Blitta solar park (2021; 50 MW, 70 MW by the 2022 extension — among West Africa's largest at its opening; the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed name), the Sokodé and Kara solar plants of 2025–26 (64 MW by the plan), the Awandjélo solar; the CEET the utility (the tariff rise of 2025 and its cut of 10 September 2025 after the protests); the fuel all imported (the STE's depot, the gasoline at 817 francs a liter from 11 September 2026); the firewood and charcoal of nine-tenths of the kitchens; the oil blocks offshore dry; the Adjarala dam on the Mono planned since the 1990s |
| Banks and markets | Ecobank Transnational (1985; the pan-African bank of 35 countries headquartered on the Boulevard du Mono, Lomé, the WAEMU's largest and the BRVM's biggest listing), the West African Development Bank (BOAD, 1973; the WAEMU's development bank in Lomé), Orabank (the Lomé-based group), the Banque Atlantique, Coris, the state's UTB and BTCI (privatized 2021–22 to IB Bank), the microfinance of FUCEC; the regional stock exchange BRVM of Abidjan (Ecobank's listing) and the UMOA-Titres bond market where Togo issues; the mobile money of Flooz and TMoney (about 10 million accounts by the counts); the Lomé free zone; the BCEAO's 3.00%; the insurance of the CIMA zone; the AfreximBank talk; the "Togo Invest" state holding; the 2024 cocaine seizures at the port the compliance file |
| Infrastructure projects | The Lomé port's third phase (the LCT's 1,050 m quay of 2014 for 24,000-TEU ships, the Togo Terminal's cranes, the dry port of Adétikopé of 2021, the Lomé–Ouagadougou corridor's rehabilitation with the Chinese loans), the Lomé–Cotonou coastal highway's widening and the Lomé bypass (the "contournement" of 2019–26), the RN1's Alédjo tunnel talk, the Lomé–Tokoin airport's Chinese modernization of 2024 and the Niamtougou upgrade, the Adétikopé industrial platform's cotton-textile chain, the Kékéli and Blitta plants and the Sokodé–Kara solar, the fiber backbone of Togo Digital, the Dogta-Lafiè hospital (2023), the universal health insurance's rollout, the WACA coastal protection, the Adjarala dam and the Lomé–Blitta rail revival plans (the Chinese studies of 2022–25), the 2026–2031 roadmap's 15 flagship programs in review |
| Poverty and inequality | 55.1% below the national poverty line by the 2015 count and 45.5% by the 2018–19 survey (both stated; 49.2% under US$1.90 a day by the 2015 line) — the Savanes above 65% and the Maritime about 25%, Lomé the least poor; Gini 43.1 (2015); the north–south gap the politics' fault line; the free primary schooling of 2008, the School Assur of 2017, the universal health insurance of 2024, the Novissi transfers of 2020 (the mobile-money cash of the pandemic to 800,000, the World Bank's showcase), the CIZO solar kits, the MIFA farm credit, the PURS emergency program of the north; the minimum wage 52,500 francs; the remittances about a tenth of GDP; the protests of 2025 on the electricity and the cost of living; the HDI 0.571 |
| Economic history in brief | The palm oil and the slave coast of Aného's traders (the Lawsons and the Olympios of the 19th century); the German "model colony" of 1884–1914 (the railways of 1905–11, the Kamina radio, the cotton and the Lomé wharf of 1904 — paid by the colony's own taxes, the pride of Berlin); the French mandate's phosphates (1961) and coffee-cocoa; Olympio's balanced budgets and the franc quarrel with Paris of 1962; Eyadéma's phosphate boom and the state firms of the 1970s (the "Switzerland of Africa"), the 1980s crash and the adjustment of 1983 (the first in Africa), the Lomé free zone of 1989; the aid freeze of 1993–2007 and the lost decade; the 2006 agreement, the HIPC relief of 2010, the port's third pier of 2014 and the transshipment rise; the pandemic's Novissi; the Sahel corridor's windfall since the Niger–Benin closure of 2023; the 2024 constitution's years with 5–6% growth, the IMF's facility, the 2025 unrest and the 2026 fuel rise — the government's and the critics' readings both stated (LAW 2) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Roads | About 7,520 km of roads by the old count the Transport page carries (2,376 km paved; the 2000s' rolls — about 12,000 km with the rural tracks by the later counts), the RN1 the spine from the Lomé port 650 km north through Atakpamé, Sokodé, Kara and Dapaong to Cinkassé and the Ouagadougou road (the Lomé–Ouagadougou corridor of the Sahel's trucks, the Alédjo gorge, the Chinese rehabilitation loans), the RN2 coastal road of the Trans–West African Coastal Highway from Aflao to Hillacondji (the Lomé–Cotonou–Lagos run), the RN5 to Kpalimé and the Ghana line, the Lomé bypass under construction since 2019; driving on the right; the trucks of the Sahel trade the road's wear; the zemidjan motorcycle taxis of Lomé (tens of thousands), the shared taxis and the bush taxis of the stations, the SOTRAL buses of Lomé (2007); the crashes — Centrale's 31 January 2026 (ten dead), Kozah's 8 March 2026 (14 dead, 58 injured) — the RN1's toll by the record |
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| Rail | 568 km of meter-gauge track of the German build — Lomé–Aného (1905, the "coconut line"), Lomé–Kpalimé (1907, the cocoa line), Lomé–Atakpamé (1911) extended to Blitta (1934, the "cotton line"); the passenger trains gone by the 1990s and the lines dead but the phosphate railway of Hahotoé–Kpémé (the SNPT's own) and the clinker trains of Tabligbo–Lomé (Togo Rail's of the WACEM group since 2002); the Lomé–Blitta revival and the Lomé–Cinkassé line to the Sahel in the Chinese studies of 2022–25 (the "Togo–Burkina railway" of the corridor plans); the Lomé station of 1905 the Gare de Lomé of the memory |
| Lomé transit | Lomé's traffic — the zemidjans (the motorcycle taxis in yellow vests, the city's bloodstream since the 1990s), the SOTRAL city buses of 2007 (the 60-odd buses of the main avenues), the shared taxis, the lagoon's pirogues; the Boulevard du 13 Janvier, the Avenue de Sarakawa and the Boulevard du Mono the axes, the Place de l'Indépendance and the Marina; the Grand Marché and the Hédzranawoé market the hubs; the Lomé–Tokoin airport 5 km northeast of the center; the Aflao border post inside the city's west; the bypass of 2019–26 to lift the trucks off the streets; no rail transit |
| Air | Lomé–Tokoin International Airport (the Gnassingbé Eyadéma International; 1.5 million passengers in 2024, up 6.2%; the new terminal of 2016, the Chinese modernization of 2024) — the hub of ASKY Airlines (2010; the Lomé-based regional carrier with Ethiopian Airlines' 40% and its Addis link, the 20-odd cities of West and Central Africa), Ethiopian's Lomé–Newark and Lomé–São Paulo runs of the 2010s, Air France and Brussels Airlines, Air Côte d'Ivoire, Royal Air Maroc, Turkish Airlines; the Niamtougou International Airport of the north (the Kara region's, 1980s; the military's too); eight airports by the count, two with long runways; the Togo Airline of 2024 by the record; the ANAC civil aviation authority; the air force's Super Tucanos at Niamtougou by the reports |
| Ports and waterways | The Port of Lomé (1968; the Port Autonome de Lomé) — the only commercial port and the only deep-water port of the West African coast with a natural draft of 16.6 m (17 m by the trade's counts), the Lomé Container Terminal of 2014 (MSC's TIL with the Chinese CMPort; the 1,050 m quay for ships of 24,000 TEU) and the Togo Terminal (Bolloré's, in the MSC group's AGL since 2022); 2.06 million TEU in 2024 (+8% on 2023), West Africa's busiest transshipment hub and the 92nd container port of the world by Lloyd's List (2025; the fifth of Africa after Tanger Med, Port Said, Durban and Damietta), about 30 million metric tons of cargo; the transit to Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali (the Sahel's port since the Niger–Benin closure of 2023), the Adétikopé dry port, about 90% of the country's trade and most of the customs take; the Kpémé phosphate pier; the fishing port of 2021 (the Japanese-built); the Lomé navy base; the Mono's 50 km of seasonal navigation; the Lake Togo and lagoon pirogues; the Gulf of Guinea piracy watch (the Lomé summit's charter of 2016) |
| Energy and utilities | The CEET (the state's electricity company; the CEB's imports from Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria the bulk, the Nangbéto, ContourGlobal, Kékéli and Blitta plants the home supply of about 260 MW), the rural electrification agency (AT2ER) and the CIZO kits; the Togolaise des Eaux (TdE) of the Lomé wells and the Kara and Sokodé networks (piped water to about 60%); the West African Gas Pipeline's Lomé offtake (the Nigerian gas of Kékéli); the fiber backbone (Togo Digital, the WACS and Equiano landings), Togocom (Axian) and Moov Africa Togo, the 4G of 2018 and the 5G trials of 2024–25; the Lomé Container Terminal's cranes; the Dogta-Lafiè hospital's power; the Aképé landfill of 2018; the STE fuel depot; the posts of La Poste du Togo (1884's German post the first) |
| Border crossings and bridges | Aflao–Lomé (the Ghana post inside the capital's west; the busiest of the coast; the Accra road), Hillacondji–Sanvee Condji (the Benin post on the coastal highway to Cotonou and Lagos; the Mono bridge), Cinkassé (the Burkina Faso gate of the RN1 and the Sahel corridor; the juxtaposed post of 2014), Kpalimé–Ho and Badou–Jasikan (the Ghana hill roads), Dapaong–Bawku (the northern Ghana post), the Mono bridges of Athiémé and the Nangbéto dam road to Benin; the ECOWAS free movement and the AES states' trucks; the Damiba extradition of 20 January 2026 across the Cinkassé road; the Savanes checkpoints of the emergency; the Ewe kin crossing at Aflao daily; the Lomé port's gate the country's real border |
History in dates
| Before 1600 | The Stone Age flints of the Oti and the Mono; the iron smelters of Bassar (the furnaces of the 1st millennium CE, the ironworks that supplied the region to the 19th century); the Aja of Tado on the Mono (the 12th–15th centuries; the kingdom from which Allada of 1575 and the Dahomey and Porto-Novo lines sprang), the Ewe's Notsé under King Agokoli (the walled town of the 16th–17th centuries whose tyranny the Ewe fled in the migration of about 1720 to the Volta and the coast), the Gourma and Moba of the north under the Gourmantché of Fada N'Gourma, the Tem's arrival at Sokodé; the Portuguese on the coast from 1471–73 (João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar) and the "Slave Coast" of the charts |
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| 1600 – 1884 | The Guin-Mina migration of 1663 from Elmina and Accra to Glidji and Aného (Petit-Popo) — the trading kingdom of the slave and palm-oil coast, the Lawson family of Aného (the Afro-English traders of the 1800s), the Olympios of Agoué (the Afro-Brazilian returnees); the Danish, Portuguese and English slavers' factories of the Bight of Benin to the 1850s; the Anufo (Chokossi) of Sansanné-Mango in the north's 18th century; the Bremen mission's Ewe work from 1847 (Keta, Ho, the Ewe grammar and Bible); Lomé founded about 1880 by Ewe traders to trade past the Gold Coast duties; the German traders (Wölber, Brohm) of Lomé and the Catholic Steyler mission of 1892 |
| 1884 – 1900 | 5 July 1884 — Gustav Nachtigal, the German commissioner, signs the protectorate treaty with King Mlapa III of Togoville (the treaty dated at Baguida by the record; the Togoland named for the village) — the Schutzgebiet Togo; the capital at Baguida, then Aného (Zebe, 1887), then Lomé (1897); the interior taken by the 1890s (the Kabye and the north under the Sokodé and Mango posts; the Konkomba wars), the borders drawn with Britain (1899) and France (1897) |
| 1900 – 1914 | The "Musterkolonie" (the model colony that paid for itself) — the Lomé wharf (1904), the three railways of 1905–11, the roads, the cotton and cocoa trials, the Kamina radio station of 1914 (the German empire's largest, the link to Berlin), the forced labor and the whip of the record — both readings stated; the governors Puttkamer and Zech; some 300 Europeans in the colony at most; the 30 years that left the rails, the churches and the memory |
| 1914 – 1919 | 7–26 August 1914 — the Togoland campaign, the first Allied land action of the First World War: the British from the Gold Coast and the French from Dahomey against the 1,500 German-led police; the fights of Agbeluvoe (15 August) and Chra (22 August), the Germans blow up Kamina's masts on the night of 24–25 August and surrender on 26 August 1914 — the first German colony to fall; the Anglo-French condominium, then the provisional partition of 1916 (France Lomé and the railways, Britain the western third); the Milner–Simon line of 10 July 1919 the border that cut the Ewe in two |
| 1919 – 1945 | The League of Nations mandates of 20 July 1922 — French Togoland (Lomé, the coast and the east, two-thirds of the land) and British Togoland (the west, run with the Gold Coast); the French administration from Lomé (the commissioner, the forced labor's "prestation," the coffee and cocoa of the Plateaux, the phosphate found 1952); the Lomé riots of 24–25 January 1933 against the new taxes (the women's march of the market, the first revolt — the "révolte des femmes" of the Nana Benz's grandmothers); the Vichy years of 1940–43 and the Free French; the Duawo (the Ewe unification committees) and the All-Ewe Conference of 1946; the UN trusteeship of 1946 replacing the mandate; the Comité de l'unité togolaise (CUT) of Sylvanus Olympio winning the Representative Assembly of 1946 |
| 1946 – 1960 | The Ewe and Togoland unification petitions to the UN (1947–56); the Parti togolais du progrès (PTP) of Nicolas Grunitzky and the French; the British Togoland plebiscite of 9 May 1956 — 58% for union with the Gold Coast, the Ewe south against — and the territory into Ghana at its independence of 6 March 1957; the French Togoland's own referendum of 28 October 1956 (the autonomous republic within the French Union, Grunitzky prime minister), the UN-supervised election of 27 April 1958 won by Olympio's CUT (the first French territory to vote out the French-backed party), Olympio prime minister; the independence proclaimed 27 April 1960 — the Togolese Republic, the flag of Paul Ahyi, the anthem of Casimir-Dosseh; the UN's seat 20 September 1960; the constitution of 1961 and Olympio President (9 April 1961) |
| 1960 – 1963 | Sylvanus Olympio (1902–63), the Unilever manager of the Afro-Brazilian Olympio line — the President of the First Republic: the balanced budget, the quarrel with Paris over the franc zone and the plan for a Togolese currency, the ban on the opposition parties (1961), the refusal to enlist the Togolese veterans of the French army; 13 January 1963 — the coup: the demobilized sergeants led by Emmanuel Bodjollé and the young Étienne Eyadéma storm the presidency, Olympio shot dead at the gate of the U.S. embassy where he sought refuge (Eyadéma the shooter by his own early account) — the first coup of independent sub-Saharan Africa and its first assassinated president; Nicolas Grunitzky (Olympio's brother-in-law) installed as President of the Second Republic (May 1963 election) |
| 1963 – 1969 | Grunitzky's Second Republic (the constitution of May 1963, the uneasy pairing with Vice President Antoine Méatchi, the Ewe–Kabye balance of the cabinet); 21 November 1966 — the Lomé uprising of Noé Kutuklui's supporters against Grunitzky put down by the army; 13 January 1967 — the bloodless coup of Lieutenant-Colonel Étienne Eyadéma against Grunitzky, the constitution suspended and the parties banned; Eyadéma President from 14 April 1967, the Kabye officer corps the regime's base; the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) the single party (29 November 1969); the plebiscite of 9 January 1972 (99.9%) confirming him |
| 1969 – 1979 | 24 January 1974 — the Sarakawa plane crash Eyadéma survived (the Kabye village's shrine, the "miracle" of the cult, the name Étienne dropped for Gnassingbé in the "authenticity" campaign of the Zaire model; the phosphate company nationalized the same year — the crash a French plot in the regime's telling, both readings stated); the Lomé Convention of 28 February 1975 (the EEC's pact with 46 ACP states, renewed in Lomé to 1989); the Third Republic's constitution of 30 December 1979 and the 99.97% election |
| 1979 – 1990 | The phosphate crash and the debt — the structural adjustment of 1983 (the first in sub-Saharan Africa), the state firms sold, the Lomé free zone of 1989; the bomb attacks of Lomé of 1985 and the arrests; the election of 21 December 1986 (99.5%); 23 September 1986 — the coup attempt from Ghana (the armed dissidents' raid on Lomé repelled with French help; the Ghana border closed), the Rawlings quarrel; the human-rights file (Amnesty's reports, the Lomé prison) and the "Papa" cult of the posters, the Sarakawa pilgrimages, the Kamina barracks; the Lomé Convention's renewals (1979, 1984, 1989) keeping the capital on the map; the student strikes of 1990 at the University of Benin |
| 1990 – 1993 | 5 October 1990 — the Lomé riots after the trial of two pamphleteers (the Bè quarter, the police shootings; the democratic movement born); the multiparty law of April 1991; the Bè lagoon's 28 bodies of 10–11 April 1991 (the crackdown's dead by the movement's count — the two accounts stated); the National Conference of 8 July – 28 August 1991 that stripped Eyadéma of his powers and named Joseph Kokou Koffigoh prime minister; the army's assaults on the prime minister's residence (October–December 1991, the 3 December 1991 attack); the referendum of 27 September 1992 (98.1% for the Fourth Republic's constitution); the general strike of November 1992 – August 1993 (the nine-month strike that emptied Lomé); 25 January 1993 — the army fires on the Lomé march before the French and German ministers (at least 19 dead by the count), 300,000 flee to Ghana and Benin by the UN's count; the Ouagadougou agreement of July 1993; the presidential vote of 25 August 1993 boycotted (96.4% to Eyadéma) |
| 1994 – 2002 | The legislative elections of February 1994 (the opposition's narrow majority; Edem Kodjo prime minister); the EU's aid freeze of 1993–2007; the presidential vote of 21 June 1998 (52% to Eyadéma, Gilchrist Olympio's claim, the count stopped — the UN–OAU inquiry of 2001 found hundreds killed by the security forces in 1998's aftermath, the government denied — both stated); the legislative vote of 21 March 1999 boycotted (RPT 79 of 81); the Lomé Framework Agreement of 29 July 1999 (Eyadéma's pledge to go in 2003); the Lomé Peace Accord of 7 July 1999 for Sierra Leone signed in the city; the CENI dissolved (June 2002); the constitutional amendment of 30 December 2002 lifting the term limit and barring Gilchrist Olympio by residency; the legislative election of 27 October 2002 boycotted by the opposition |
| 2003 – 2005 | 1 June 2003 — Eyadéma's sixth election (57.8%, the opposition's fraud charge); the 2004 EU dialogue's 22 commitments; 5 February 2005 — Eyadéma dies aboard the plane flying him to France for treatment, 160 miles south of Tunis, after 38 years — Africa's longest-serving ruler; 6 February — the army installs Faure Gnassingbé, the Assembly amends the constitution overnight (the "coup" of ECOWAS's and the AU's condemnation); 25 February — Faure steps down, Bonfoh Abass interim; 24 April 2005 — the presidential vote (Faure 60.2% against Emmanuel Bob-Akitani's 38%), the riots of Lomé, Aného and Atakpamé and the crackdown — 400 to 500 dead by the UN mission of Doudou Diène, 811 by the Togolese League of Human Rights, about 100 by the government's count — all stated (LAW 2); 40,000 flee to Ghana and Benin; Faure sworn 4 May 2005 |
| 2006 – 2010 | 20 August 2006 — the Global Political Agreement (APG) of Ouagadougou with the opposition (Yawovi Agboyibo prime minister, the truth commission, the electoral reform); the legislative election of 14 October 2007 (RPT 50 of 81; the first the EU called largely fair; the aid resumed); the 2006 World Cup (June; the three defeats and the bonus strike); the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of 2009–12 (Bishop Barrigah; the 1958–2005 abuses); the death penalty abolished 23 June 2009; 8 January 2010 — the Cabinda attack on the Éperviers' bus (three dead); 4 March 2010 — Faure re-elected (60.9%; Jean-Pierre Fabre's 34%, the ANC's marches and the Kpatcha Gnassingbé plot trial of the President's half-brother, jailed 2011); the UFC's Gilchrist Olympio into the government (May 2010); the HIPC completion of December 2010 |
| 2011 – 2015 | The Lomé Grand Marché and Kara market fires of 11–12 January 2013 and the arrests of the opposition's Agbéyomé Kodjo and others (the "fires" trial); the legislative election of 25 July 2013 (UNIR 62 of 91; the "Let's Save Togo" collective's 19); the Ebola scare of 2014; the presidential vote of 25 April 2015 (Faure 58.8%, Fabre 35.2%; the third term under the 2002 text's absence of limits); the Lomé port's third pier (LCT, October 2014); the SNPT's low years; the 2013 AFCON quarterfinal; the Commonwealth application of 2014; the Adétikopé and port plans of the Plan National de Développement |
| 2016 – 2017 | 15 October 2016 — the Lomé maritime-security summit of the African Union (the Lomé Charter on the sea); the "Togo Vision 2025" plans; 19 August 2017 — the PNP's march in Lomé and Sokodé begins the year of mass protests for the two-term limit of 1992 ("Faure must go"; the 14-party coalition; the deaths of Sokodé and Mango of October 2017 — about 16 by the counts, the government's lower — both stated; the internet cuts; the ECOWAS mediation of Ghana's Akufo-Addo and Guinea's Condé) |
| 2018 – 2019 | The legislative election of 20 December 2018 boycotted by the coalition (UNIR 59 of 91); 8 May 2019 — the constitutional amendment: the two-term limit restored but not retroactive (Faure eligible for 2020 and 2025), the Senate created on paper, the presidential immunity; 30 June 2019 — the first municipal elections since 1987; the Togocom privatization (Axian, 2019); the Nayéga manganese license |
| 2020 – 2021 | 22 February 2020 — Faure's fourth election (70.8%; Agbéyomé Kodjo of the MPDD 19.5% — his claim of victory with the archbishop emeritus Kpodzro's blessing, his arrest of 21 April and his exile; the bishops' observers' accreditation withdrawn; the internet cut) — both sides stated (LAW 2); 6 March 2020 — the first COVID-19 case, the state of emergency of 1 April, the Novissi mobile-money transfers to 800,000 (the World Bank's model), the toll of 290 by the official count; 28 September 2020 — Victoire Tomegah Dogbé the first woman prime minister; the Pegasus revelations of July 2021 (the bishops' and the opposition's phones by the consortium's finding, the government's denial — both stated); 9–10 November 2021 — the first jihadist incursion at Sanloaga in the Savanes (no dead); the Adétikopé industrial platform opened (June 2021), the Blitta solar park (June 2021), the Kékéli plant |
| 2022 | 10–11 May 2022 — the Kpékankandi attack in Kpendjal (eight soldiers killed, 13 wounded; JNIM's claim; the first deaths of the Savanes war); 13 June — the security emergency declared in the Savanes Region (the curfews, the checkpoints, the military governor); 25 June 2022 — Togo joins the Commonwealth with Gabon at the Kigali summit (the 56th member; the "Anglophone pivot" of the English in the schools); 14–15 July — the coordinated attacks on the Kpendjal villages (about 20 civilians dead); the July 2022 explosion that killed seven children in the north (the army's munition by one account, a mine by another — both stated); the Lomé fuel price rises; the ECOWAS mediation on the Sahel juntas; the Ukraine grain and fertilizer shock |
| 2023 | The Savanes attacks through the year (the ACLED count of 14 attacks and 66 dead for the first half; the official 31 dead for the whole war by November 2023 — both stated); the state of emergency extended 12 months (April 2023); the Niger coup of 26 July 2023 and the Niger–Benin border closure that turned the Sahel's trade to Lomé; Faure's shuttles between ECOWAS and the juntas (the Niamey visits); the Lomé port's two-million-TEU year by the trade's count; the Dogta-Lafiè hospital opened; the Mono floods of the autumn; the 2024 budget of 2,180 billion francs; the opposition's "Dynamique pour la majorité du peuple" (DMP) formed by Kodjo's heirs |
| 2024 | March — the new constitution unveiled; 25 March — passed by the Assembly; 3 April — the vote postponed for "consultations" after the outcry (the bishops, the opposition, the ECOWAS mission); 19 April — passed again (89 of 91); 29 April — the Assembly and regional elections (UNIR 108 of 113 and 137 of 179; turnout 61.76%; the opposition's fraud charge and the observers' mixed reports — both stated); 6 May 2024 — the charter promulgated; 14 June — Kodjo Adedze Speaker; 21 August — the transition government of 35; the IMF's Extended Credit Facility of March 2024 (US$390 million by the approval); the universal health insurance launched; the Lomé–Tokoin airport's 1.5 million passengers; the Savanes emergency extended (April 2024) with 8,986 displaced and 36,984 refugees by the March count; the Éperviers' AFCON 2025 qualifying failure (the October–November defeats) |
| 2025 (January – June) | 15 February — the Senate's first election (UNIR 34 of 41); 6 March — the Savanes emergency extended to 13 March 2026 and the Senate's first sitting; 22 March — the Éperviers' 2–2 with Mauritania in the World Cup qualifiers; 3 April — Barry Moussa Barqué Senate President; 23 April — Eugène Koffi Adoboli, the prime minister of 1999–2000, dies at 90; 3 May 2025 — the Fifth Republic: Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové elected President by the Assembly at 85, Faure Gnassingbé sworn as President of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister's post abolished (Dogbé's exit); 26 May — the rapper Aamron arrested with 34 others (his beating by the rights groups' account, his release of 6 June); 4 June — the U.S. partial travel restriction on Togolese nationals; 5–6 June — the first protest days of Lomé (the June 6 Movement born); 16 June — RFI and France 24 suspended for three months; 26–28 June — the three days of barricades in Bè, Nyékonakpoè and the Deckon quarters — seven dead by the rights groups' count (two of them 13 and 15 by the accounts; the bodies of the lagoon), 14 by the civil society's, drownings by the government's — all stated (LAW 2); more than 60 arrested |
| 2025 (July – December) | 9 July — the international arrest warrants for the M66's figures abroad; 10 July — about 100 held by the count; 16–17 July — the M66's call to disrupt the municipal vote; 17 July — the municipal elections (UNIR 75% of the 1,150 seats on a low turnout); 24 July — the marches against the charter; 21–22 August — the Lomé days (about 100 injured, 119–125 arrested by the counts); 30 August — the "Togo mort" ("Dead Togo") day of the M66, Sauvons le Togo and Touche pas à ma constitution (Aamron and Marguerite Gnakade moved by the police, Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson kept at home); 10 September — the electricity tariff cut back; 17 September — Marguerite Gnakade, the former defense minister and the President's sister-in-law, arrested for "incitement to revolt"; 19–20 September — Aamron re-arrested and released under supervision; 3 October — the activist Grâce Koumayi Biyoki arrested; 8 October — the government of 27; 28 October — Komi Sélom Klassou Speaker (103 of 103); 18–19 November — Faure in Moscow with Putin (the embassies' reopening); 7 December — the coup attempt in neighboring Benin condemned; 8 December — the M66's announced day blocked by the deployment (a "flop" by the state media, the repression's work by Le Monde's reading — both stated); 9 December — the footballer Ludovic Assemoassa dies at 45 |
| 2026 (January – March) | 7 January — the agronomist Madjoulba Batocfetou dies; 20 January — Togo arrests and extradites Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, Burkina Faso's former transitional president in exile in Lomé since the coup of 30 September 2022, on Ouagadougou's formal request — the government's "legal cooperation" and the rights groups' alarm both stated (LAW 2); 31 January — the Centrale Region crash of a truck and a bus (ten dead, nine injured); 15 February — the senator Bitokotipou Yagninim, the justice minister of 1990, dies at 84; 2 March — the Assembly extends the Savanes emergency to 13 March 2027 (the fifth renewal); 5 March — the BCEAO cuts its rate to 3.00% on the zone's deflation; 8 March — the Kozah truck-and-tricycle crash (14 dead, 58 injured); 8–9 March — the Russian defense minister Belousov in Lomé by the monitoring reports; 23 March — the National Credit Council's 6.2% for 2025 and 6.5% for 2026; 26 March — the Ecofin account of the Council |
| 2026 (April – June) | 8 April — the senator Abass Kaboua dies at 63; April — the 2026–2028 Togo–Sahel strategy unveiled (the political dialogue, the corridors, the trade, the security with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) and the maritime-logistics protocol by the reports; 18 May 2026 — the visa-free entry of 30 days for the citizens of every African state; the June anniversary of the 2025 days watched by the deployments (no repeat of the June 2025 toll by the record); 22 June — the New Cotton Company's 2026–27 target of 105,000 metric tons at 300 francs a kilogram after the 80,000 of 2025–26; June — the Éperviers' FIFA 119th under the new coach Patrice Neveu |
| 2026 (July – August) | The rainy season's floods of the lagoon quarters; 9 July — the Russian cargo Mikhail Britnev at the Lomé port with military freight for the Sahel by the All Eyes on Wagner report of September (unconfirmed by Lomé — both stated); July — Sergei Lavrov's confirmation of the Russian mission's opening in Lomé by the same report; the Evala of Kara (July) with the President of the Council; the phosphate and clinker exports of the half-year; the port's transit growth on the Ouagadougou and Niamey corridors; the cotton planting of the 105,000-hectare target; the state of the Savanes under the emergency's fifth year (the JNIM attacks "increased significantly" since early 2025 by the Crisis Group's April 2026 reading) |
| 2026 (September) | 4 September — the Lomé port's transshipment lead and the 2.06 million TEU of 2024 restated by the trade press (Lloyd's List's 92nd); early September — the 2026–2031 roadmap's regional reviews in the Centrale and Plateaux regions; 9 September — the BCEAO holds at 3.00% (the zone's inflation 0.4%, the growth 6.1% projected); 11 September — the fuel price rise (gasoline to 817 francs a liter from 725; the diesel and kerosene with it) — the government's "truth of prices" and the unions' protest both stated (LAW 2); 12 September — the All Eyes on Wagner report on the "Lomé lock"; 17 September — the roadmap's final stakeholder review ("Protect, Unite, Transform"; nine ambitions, 15 flagship programs); September — the Epe Ekpe of Glidji; the Éperviers' autumn window; the Savanes war's fifth season |
| 2026 (October) and the state | 1 October — the fuel fund's new prices in force for the month; the roadmap's cabinet adoption pending; the Savanes emergency to 13 March 2027; the Assembly's autumn session on the 2027 budget; THE STATE AS OF 3 OCTOBER 2026 — the Fifth Republic in its second year: President Savi de Tové (87) in the ceremonial office, Faure Gnassingbé (60) the President of the Council of Ministers with UNIR's 108 of 113, the Speaker Klassou, the Senate's Barqué, the government of 8 October 2025 under Dussey and Barcola; the BCEAO at 3.00%, the franc at about 583 to the dollar, the growth of 6% by the Council's count and 5% by the IMF's; the port's two million containers and the Sahel's trucks; the June 6 Movement in exile and online, its figures under warrant; the north under the emergency; the next Assembly election due by 2030 — the two readings of the republic both stated (LAW 2) |
Records & firsts
| The first coup | 13 January 1963 — the first military coup of independent sub-Saharan Africa and the first assassination of a sitting president: Sylvanus Olympio shot at the gate of the U.S. embassy in Lomé by the demobilized sergeants of the French army whom he had refused to enlist (Eyadéma among them, the shooter by his own early account); the coup that set the continent's pattern of the 1960s–70s; the second coup of 13 January 1967 the same date four years on |
|---|---|
| The longest rule | Gnassingbé Eyadéma — 38 years (14 April 1967 – 5 February 2005), Africa's longest-serving ruler at his death; the Gnassingbé family in power since 13 January 1967 — 59 years by 2026, the longest-ruling family of the continent (the Bongos of Gabon 1967–2023 their only rival until the coup of 30 August 2023); Faure's 20 years as President (2005–25) and his new office of 2025 without a term limit — the "dynasty" of the opposition's word and the "stability" of the government's — both stated (LAW 2); the Sarakawa cult of 1974; the RPT–UNIR's every Assembly majority since 1969 |
| The oldest president | Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové — elected President of the Republic on 3 May 2025 four days short of his 86th birthday, the oldest head of state ever elected by the record (the oldest at a first election by the lists; Cameroon's Paul Biya, 93, the oldest serving head of state by the 2026 count); the ceremonial office of the Fifth Republic his; born 7 May 1939, the year the war began; the opposition figure of 1990–93 turned the majority's choice — the "opening" and the "figurehead" readings both stated (LAW 2) |
| The narrowest country | A strip 579 km long and 160 km at its widest, 50 km at the coast — among the narrowest countries of the world for its length (Chile and the Gambia the others of the lists), the 56 km of coast the shortest of the Gulf of Guinea's states; Lomé among the few capitals of the world on an international border (the Ghana post of Aflao inside the city's west) by the geographers' lists; the 123rd country by area, about the size of Croatia; the five regions stacked from the sea to the Sahel's edge the shape |
| The port | The Port of Lomé — the only deep-water port of the West African coast by natural draft (16.6 m; 17 m by the trade's counts), West Africa's busiest container transshipment hub with 2.06 million TEU in 2024 (+8%), the 92nd container port of the world and the fifth of Africa by Lloyd's List (2025), the Lomé Container Terminal's 1,050 m quay the region's first for 24,000-TEU ships (2014); the Sahel's port since 2023 (Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali); about 90% of the country's trade and most of the customs take through its gates; the smallest state of the coast with the largest transshipment port by the trade press's phrase |
| The Nana Benz | The women cloth traders of Lomé's Grand Marché — the "Nana Benz" of the 1960s–80s who sold the Dutch wax prints of Vlisco across West Africa, bought the Mercedes-Benz cars that named them (the first the President's car pool by the tale) and held about 40% of the country's commerce by the counts of the 1970s, the richest women of the region and the financiers of the RPT; the market's fire of 11–12 January 2013; the "Nanettes" of their granddaughters' trade; the Grand Marché's rebuilt halls; the wax-print's pattern names ("the eye of my rival," "my husband is capable") |
| The Vodun market | The Akodessewa fetish market of Lomé — the largest Vodun (voodoo) market of the world by the common claim: the skulls, skins and charms of the healers' trade from the whole Gulf of Guinea, the Vodun priests of the Ewe-Mina-Aja south whose religion crossed the Atlantic as Haiti's vodou and Brazil's candomblé; the Epe Ekpe of Glidji (the sacred stone taken from the forest each September, its color the year's omen), the Togoville oracle of Lake Togo, the Vodun convents of the initiates; the Vodun day of 10 January the Benin side's holiday; the Catholic cathedral of 1902 a few streets from the market |
| The only medal | Benjamin Boukpeti — the bronze of the K1 canoe slalom at Beijing on 12 August 2008, the country's first and only Olympic medal (the paddle broken over his knee in the celebration; the French-born paddler of a Togolese father), the first Olympic medal of any West African in canoeing; Togo at every Summer Games since Munich 1972 (five athletes at Paris 2024), the Winter Games of Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 (Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean the first flag-bearer, Alessia Afi Dipol the alpine skier) — among the first West African states at a Winter Games; Emmanuel Adebayor the African Footballer of the Year of 2008 the same year; the 2006 World Cup the only one; the 2013 AFCON quarterfinal the best |
| Koutammakou | The Land of the Batammariba — the World Heritage of 2004 in the Kara Region's northeast (extended into Benin in 2023 to 271,826 ha): the takienta (siken) tower-houses of mud, two stories with the granaries in the turrets, the ground floor for the animals and the ancestors' shrines, the roof terrace for the living, a people of about 25,000 on the Togo side keeping the building craft alive (the UNESCO safeguarding program of 2008); the only World Heritage site of the country and the symbol the tourism ministry made the nation's; the "Tamberma" of the colonial name; the Nadoba market the visitors' door |
| The model colony | German Togoland (1884–1914) — the "Musterkolonie" of Berlin's propaganda, the only German colony that balanced its books (the customs of Lomé's wharf of 1904 and the hut tax), the three railways of 1905–11 (the first, Lomé–Aného, of 1905), the Kamina radio station of 1914 the largest wireless of its day (the Berlin link of 5,000 km; blown up 24–25 August 1914), the roads and the mission schools — and the forced labor and the 25 lashes of the "model" the Togolese histories record; the first German colony to fall in the war (26 August 1914, the first Allied victory); the Lomé cathedral of 1902, the governor's palace (the Palais des Gouverneurs of 1905, the Palais de Lomé museum since 2019) the legacy |
| The Lomé agreements | The Lomé Convention of 28 February 1975 — the trade-and-aid pact of the nine EEC states with 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (71 by Lomé IV), renewed in the city in 1979, 1984 and 1989 and replaced by Cotonou's of 2000 — the small capital's name on the world's largest development treaty; the Lomé Peace Accord of 7 July 1999 ending Sierra Leone's war (Kabbah and Sankoh; the amnesty the UN excepted); the Lomé Framework Agreement of 29 July 1999 on Togo's own politics; the Lomé Charter of 15 October 2016 on maritime security (the African Union's); the Global Political Agreement of 2006 signed in Ouagadougou; the Lomé Peace and Security Forum of 2022–25 |
| The Fifth Republic's firsts | The only parliamentary system of the Francophone West African states by the current count (the President of the Council of Ministers of 3 May 2025 — the first head of government without a term limit by the charter's design), the first Senate (15 February 2025; the first sitting 6 March), the first President elected by a legislature (3 May 2025, unanimous), the first abolition of the prime minister's post; the first woman prime minister (Victoire Tomegah Dogbé, 28 September 2020) the last one; the first municipal elections in 32 years (30 June 2019); the first Commonwealth members without a British past since 2009 (Togo and Gabon, 25 June 2022); the world's largest organic-soy exporter by the trade's claim of 2021; the first mobile-money cash-transfer program of the pandemic (Novissi, April 2020) by the World Bank's citation |
| The protests of 2025 | The "Gen Z" days of 5–6 and 26–28 June 2025 — the largest street challenge to the Gnassingbé order since 2017–18 and the first against the Fifth Republic: the barricades of Bè, Nyékonakpoè, Adakpamé and Deckon, the seven dead by the rights groups' count (the bodies of the Bè lagoon; two children of 13 and 15), 14 by the civil society's, drownings by the government's — all stated (LAW 2); the June 6 Movement of the diaspora's bloggers and the rapper Aamron, the first movement of the TikTok era; the RFI/France 24 suspension of three months; the arrest warrants of 9 July abroad; the electricity tariff cut of 10 September the concession; the December blockade the end of the street phase — "finally thwarted" by Le Monde's reading, "a flop" by the state's |
| The disasters and the attacks | The massacre of 25 January 1993 (at least 19 shot at the Lomé march; 300,000 fled by the UN's count); the April 2005 aftermath (400–500 dead by the UN mission, 811 by the Togolese league, about 100 by the state — all stated); the Bè lagoon of April 1991 (28 bodies by the movement's count); the floods of 2007 in the north (20 dead, the RN1's bridges down); the Cabinda attack of 8 January 2010 (three of the Éperviers' party); the Lomé Grand Marché fire of 11–12 January 2013; the Kpékankandi attack of 10–11 May 2022 (eight soldiers) and the July 2022 villages (about 20) — the Savanes war's 31 dead by the official count of November 2023 and the 66 of ACLED's for half of 2023 alone (both stated); the crashes of 31 January 2026 (ten) and 8 March 2026 (14); the coastal erosion's lost streets of Aného; no earthquakes of record |
| The small and the strange | The 2 Février hotel of Lomé (1980; 102 m, the tallest building of the country, named for a date of the Eyadéma calendar, empty for years and the Radisson Blu since 2016); the Independence Monument of Paul Ahyi (1960); the Sarakawa shrine where Eyadéma's plane fell (24 January 1974) and the wristwatches with his face; the "Togo" of the Allied Powers' first victory of 1914; the three capitals of Togoland in 13 years (Baguida, Aného, Lomé); the prime meridian crossing the far west; the day-name ministers (Kodjo, Komi, Yawa); the zemidjan's yellow vests; the sodabi's proof; the Evala's fattening weeks; the fire-dancers of Sokodé's Adossa; the Agbogbo-Za of Notsé's wall; the tchoukoutou calabash; the lagoon's pirogue ferries; the Lomé beach's Sunday football; the Nana Benz's Mercedes |
| The last and the next | The last popular vote for the executive 22 February 2020 (the presidency now Parliament's to give), the last referendum 27 September 1992, the last coup 13 January 1967 (the attempts of 1986 and the Kpatcha plot of 2009 failed), the last execution 1978 (the death penalty gone 2009), the last prime minister Victoire Tomegah Dogbé (3 May 2025), the last colonial governor's exit 27 April 1960, the last Assembly election 29 April 2024; the next — the Savanes emergency's review by 13 March 2027, the 2027 budget of the autumn session, the AFCON 2027 qualifiers, the Lomé–Blitta rail and the Adjarala dam of the plans, the Senate's next vote in 2031, the Assembly's by 2030 and the President of the Council's renewal with it, Savi de Tové's term to 2029 — the opposition's demand for a direct vote and the government's parliamentary answer both stated (LAW 2) |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Togo?
The Togolese Republic — République togolaise in French, the official language — the name taken at independence on 27 April 1960 from French Togoland, the eastern part of the German Togoland of 1884–1914; "Togo" from the lagoon village of Togodo (Togoville) on Lake Togo where Gustav Nachtigal signed the protectorate treaty with King Mlapa III on 5 July 1884 — in the Ewe reading "behind the water" (to, water; go, shore); the Fifth Republic since the constitution in force on 3 May 2025; the demonym Togolese.
What is the capital of Togo?
Lomé — the seat of the Presidency, the Council of Ministers, both houses of Parliament and the courts, on the Gulf of Guinea at the kingdom's southwestern corner against the Ghana line (the Aflao border post inside the city's edge); founded by Ewe traders in the 1880s to sidestep the British duties at the Gold Coast, the capital of German Togoland from 1897; 1.5 million people in the city of 99 km² and 2.2 million in the Grand Lomé of 280 km² by the census of November 2022 — about a quarter of the country; the only commercial port (2.06 million containers in 2024, West Africa's busiest transshipment hub), the Grand Marché of the Nana Benz, the Independence Monument, the University of Lomé (1970), the headquarters of Ecobank, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and ASKY, the Lomé Convention of 1975 and the Lomé Peace Accord of 1999.
How big is Togo, and how many people live there?
56,785 km² (21,925 sq mi) — the 123rd country of the world, a strip 579 km from the Burkina Faso line to the sea and 160 km at its widest, about the size of Croatia or Himachal Pradesh and about a sixtieth of India, with 2,400 km² of water; 8,095,498 people at the census of November 2022 and 9,583,381 by the UN's estimate for 2024 (the 101st country), about 9.9 million by the 2026 projection — both stated; growing about 2.5% a year with 4.2 children a woman; about 143 people per km² by the census and about 169 by the 2024 estimate; two-fifths of the people under 15, a quarter of them in Grand Lomé.
What are the highest and lowest points of Togo?
Mont Agou (Baumann Peak in the German maps) — 986 m (3,235 ft), in the Togo Mountains above Kpalimé in the Plateaux Region near the Ghana line, the top of the Atakora–Togo range that runs from the Akwapim hills of Ghana across the country into Benin's Atakora; the lowest point sea level on the 56 km Atlantic coast of the Bight of Benin at Lomé and Aného, where the shore is losing meters a year to the erosion the Lomé port's breakwater and the Volta dam's sand starvation set off — the coastal protection works of 2022–26 the answer; Lomé itself a few meters above the sea on the sand bar between the ocean and the lagoon.
What currency does Togo use?
The West African CFA franc (ISO code XOF; FCFA; F.CFA), issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO, Dakar) for the eight states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union — pegged to the euro at 655.957 since 1 January 1999 (100 to the French franc from the devaluation of 12 January 1994) and guaranteed by the French Treasury under the reform of December 2019 that ended the Paris reserve deposit; about 583 to the U.S. dollar on 2 October 2026 by the market's count (the euro at 1.1256) and about 6 to the Indian rupee; notes of 500 to 10,000 francs, coins of 5 to 500; the BCEAO's policy rate 3.00% since the cut of March 2026, held on 9 September 2026; the "eco" of the ECOWAS single-currency plan the talk since 2019.
Who governs Togo?
Under the constitution of the Fifth Republic (passed by the Assembly on 19 April 2024, promulgated 6 May 2024, in force 3 May 2025) the head of state is the President of the Republic, elected by the two houses of Parliament for four years, once renewable, with ceremonial powers — Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové, 87, born 7 May 1939 in Lomé, the old opposition figure of the 1990s, elected unanimously on 3 May 2025 at 85 (the oldest head of state ever elected by the record); the executive is the President of the Council of Ministers, the leader of the majority of the National Assembly, who holds the powers the presidency had — Faure Gnassingbé, 60, born 6 June 1966 at Afagnan, President of the Republic from 2005 to 2025 after his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma's 38 years, sworn into the new office on 3 May 2025 for the legislature's term with no limit on renewal — the government's reading of a parliamentary system and the opposition's of a "constitutional coup" both stated (LAW 2); the Union for the Republic (UNIR) with 108 of the 113 Assembly seats since 29 April 2024 and 34 of the 41 elected Senate seats since 15 February 2025; the government of 8 October 2025 (27 members: Robert Dussey at foreign affairs, Essowè Georges Barcola at finance); the next Assembly election due by 2030.
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