Since July 27, 2026, a former defense minister has refused all food as a protest against the harsh conditions she faces behind bars. Eleven months after her arrest for criticizing the leadership of Faure Gnassingbé, she now symbolizes the plight of nearly sixty political prisoners still held in Togo’s jails.
On August 30, 2025, as Lomé erupted in protests over soaring living costs and a controversial constitutional reform that shifted Togo from a presidential to a parliamentary system, Essozimna Marguerite Gnakadé took to the streets. As the first woman to serve as Togo’s defense minister from 2020 to 2022, she was once a trusted figure in the regime. Yet when she openly questioned Faure Gnassingbé’s ability to govern effectively, she was arrested on September 17, 2025. Her crime? Exercising her right to free speech.
From power to protest: a former insider’s fight for justice
Marguerite Gnakadé’s journey from a high-ranking official to a detained activist is striking. Appointed defense minister without a military background, she was also the late Ernest Gnassingbé’s widow—brother of the current president. Despite her past ties to the ruling family, her public dissent placed her in direct opposition to the regime she once served. Now, she and other political prisoners are using their bodies as their last form of resistance.
« We launch this hunger strike not out of despair, but out of conviction. When justice fails, our bodies become our final voice. » — Statement from striking political prisoners, November 2025
Hunger strikes: the desperate cry of Togo’s imprisoned dissenters
Marguerite Gnakadé’s protest is not an isolated act. Over the past year, hunger strikes have emerged as one of the few tools available to Togo’s political prisoners to demand better treatment. In November 2025, thirty-seven detainees began a collective fast. By December, activists Grâce Koumayi and dual national Abdoul Aziz Goma had endured fifty days without food at Lomé’s civil prison, drawing attention to their cause. Human rights groups have since called for immediate medical care for all strikers.
Former officials behind bars: a tale of contrasting fates
Marguerite Gnakadé shares her imprisonment with other once-powerful figures like Kpatcha Gnassingbé and General Félix Kadanga, but their stories differ. Kpatcha Gnassingbé, half-brother of the president and former defense minister, was sentenced to sixteen years for an alleged coup attempt before being released in a presidential pardon in December 2025. General Kadanga, a former army chief, is serving a twenty-year sentence for his role in a 2023 murder case. Unlike them, Gnakadé remains imprisoned solely for expressing dissenting political views.
The constitutional reform that sparked a crisis
Tensions in Togo have simmered since March 2024, when a new constitution abolished presidential term limits and installed Faure Gnassingbé as prime minister. Opposition leaders condemned the move as a constitutional coup, fueling the 2025 youth-led protests against economic hardship and political repression. The government’s crackdown led to a wave of arrests, filling prisons with scores of so-called « opinion prisoners. »
In a rare gesture of goodwill, a presidential pardon in December 2025 released 1,511 detainees. Yet civil society groups estimate that around seventy political prisoners remain behind bars, their fates uncertain.
Human rights groups demand action for detained activists
The campaign for the release of Togo’s political prisoners continues, led by groups like Touche pas à ma Constitution and opposition parties. These organizations report that at least nine prisoners have died in custody since the crackdown began, while others bear the scars of mistreatment. They urge the immediate and unconditional release of all opinion prisoners and urgent medical care for hunger strikers like Marguerite Gnakadé, whose health has deteriorated sharply after eleven months in detention.