Togo’s military-installed president was expected on Friday to announce he is stepping down following fierce regional and international opposition to his rule, a diplomat at the African Union said.
Faure Gnassingbe was expected to make the announcement in a speech to the congress of Togo’s ruling party, the diplomat told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity on the sidelines of an AU Peace and Security Council meeting on Friday.
Mixed signals, though, came from Togo, where the ruling party on Friday named Gnassingbe as its candidate in presidential elections to be held by April.
The AU is aware that Gnassingbe might step down, but will keep the pressure up, a top AU official said on condition of anonymity. The AU Peace and Security Council later called on all African countries to impose a travel ban on Togolese leaders and demanded Gnassingbe step down.
The council backed sanctions imposed by West African leaders and asked the AU’s 53 members to follow suit, said Said Djinnit, the AU’s peace and security commissioner, at the end of the meeting.
Gnassingbe took power hours after the February 5 death of his father, Togo’s iron-fisted 38-year ruler, Gnassingbe Eyadema.
Gnassingbe’s appointment — retroactively given a legalistic veneer by Togolese lawmakers in a series of constitutional amendments — dashed hopes that Eyadema’s death would usher in democracy in Togo.
At Friday’s AU council meeting, members asked Togo’s ambassador, Koffi Esaw, to leave because the AU had suspended Togo over the presidential crisis.
”I totally agree with how the power was handed over to the new president because we were facing a very dangerous situation. There was the prospect of unrest and the only way to avoid the unrest was to take the action we did,” Esaw told journalists after leaving the meeting.
The Togolese regime has been gradually retreating in the face of opposition at home and abroad. Parliament had at first said Gnassingbe would serve out his father’s term — until 2008. But on February 18, Gnassingbe agreed to hold elections within 60 days, as the original Constitution had stipulated in the event of a president’s death in office.
AU Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said earlier this week that the AU rejects any election ”organised under the conditions indicated by the authorities who came to power following the military coup d’état” in Togo”, according to a statement.
Riots in the week following Gnassingbe’s appointment saw four protesters killed in clashes with security forces. Togo had banned all political activity immediately after Eyadema’s death, saying it wanted to preserve calm for national mourning, but lifted the ban last week, one-and-a-half months early. — Sapa-AP