A recent wave of protests by Togolese opposition groups and a heavy-handed clampdown by security forces have set the scene for a tense struggle for reforms in a country that has been ruled for 45 years by a father and his son. Since April, the opposition has been holding demonstrations to press for electoral reforms ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for an as yet undeclared date this month.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the violence inflicted upon a journalist by security forces in Togo on Friday 5 October. According to Independent Journalists Union in Togo (UJIT in French), an IFJ affiliate, journalist Justin Anani was attacked by security forces while covering a protest march organized by two opposition groups, the 'Collectif Sauvons le Togo' and 'Mouvement Arc-en ciel' in the capital Lomé.

While change has swept other parts of the world over the past couple of years, Togo, an impoverished and largely agricultural nation under French rule before independence in 1960, can sometimes feel like a throwback to another era. Lingering suspicions over an alleged coup bid in 2009 have added to tensions, with the president's half-brother sentenced to 20 years in prison and 32 others to a range of jail terms over the incident last year. Opposition and civil society groups have been organising protests that the government seeks to prevent, usually with police firing tear gas.

Togolese Prime Minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo has resigned. Although no reasons for the resignation were given, TVT said President Faure Gnassingbe accepted the resignation. His resignation comes at a time when the country was preparing itself for the general election to take place at the end of this year.

Media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has condemned an attack on a Togolese journalist who was covering a demonstration in the West Afrian state and called on authorities to immediately investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Atayi Ayi, a reporter for the daily Forum de la Semaine, was taking photographs of a protest in Lomé, the capital, when two groups of unidentified demonstrators beat him and seized his camera, CPJ said in a statement.

A peaceful march by the ‘Save Togo‘ collective on 12 June 2012, degenerated into a stand off with security forces. Around 120 injured were recorded during clashes over 12-13 June. The ‘Save Togo' collective brings together several political and human rights organisations. It was created on 4 April in Lomé and totals 17 groups, including seven organisations dedicated to the defense of human rights.

Togolese security forces on Tuesday 12 June used teargas to disperse a huge demonstration staged by civil society organizations and some opposition political parties in the capital, Lomé. Tens of thousands of people led by opposition and civil society figures defied a heavy downpour to heed the call by the umbrella 'Let's Save Togo' to denounce actions by the government they claimed were intended to manipulate the electoral process.

Togolese students arrested on 28 March and 3 April, following demonstrations at the University of Kara, have been released. Students Agnité Massama, Bitsioudi Birénam and Sidiba Mohamed who were arrested on 28 March at the University of Kara, have been released. They are members of the National Union of Pupils and Students of Togo (Union nationale des élèves et étudiants du Togo). A fourth student, Alinki M’claw, was arrested on 3 April and was also released. They had been charged with 'incitement to revolt' (incitation à la révolte) after they organized a general assembly to discuss the government's failure to honour its promise to grant benefits to support students, and scholarships on the basis of merit.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Togo to investigate a report that police assaulted a photojournalist after he took photos of officers seizing a motorcycle during a protest, according to media reports and local journalists. Koffi Djidonou Frédéric Attipou, a photojournalist with the weekly Le Canard Indépendant and the biweekly magazine Sika, told CPJ he was covering a protest over government human rights violations when he turned his camera to police confiscating a demonstrator's motorcycle nearby. Togolese police, facing numerous allegations of heavy-handed and abusive tactics, have had a number of recent confrontations with journalists covering their activities, according to news accounts and CPJ research.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has welcomed the release of an independent report on Togo that examined allegations that members of the Togolese intelligence agency tortured individuals accused of taking part in an attempted coup d’état in 2009. 'Togo’s national human rights commission found that the prisoners were subjected to physical and moral violence of an inhuman and degrading nature,' Ms. Ravina Shamdasani, OHCHR spokesperson, said in a statement.

After culling through 20,000 depositions from alleged victims of politically motivated torture and human rights violations in Togo, a special commission has begun hearing testimony from a select group of some 250 of those alleged victims, whose stories cover nearly half a century of turmoil in this West African nation.

On 6 August 2011, journalists in the West African country of Togo rallied in the streets of the capital Lomé [fr] to protest against the threats that their colleagues received recently, reports Global Voices. The rally was launched on 3 August by the association ‘SOS Journalistes en Danger' (SOS Journalists in Danger). The week prior to the event, several media professionals in the association warned against threats sent to a group of Togolese journalists that were believed to be 'critical of the power in place'.

West African country Togo's students' struggle for better education conditions is now in its fifth week and despite a recent truce, tensions remains high in the capital Lomé. A wind of appeasement seemed to blow on the demonstrations organised by the Mouvement pour l'Épanouissement des Étudiants Togolais - MEET (Movement for the Fulfillment of Togolese Students) - when students managed to obtain from authorities the reinstatement of the president of their association on 30 June. Abou Seidou, a student of the University of Lomé, had been previously expelled for allegedly causing troubles on the campus. This reinstatement was expected to open the way to negotiations, reports Global Voices Online.

The Ivorian refugee crisis is spreading further across West Africa, with Ghana and Togo receiving a growing number of new arrivals. On Côte d'Ivoire's eastern flank, Ghana has received 3,129 new refugees, mainly from Abidjan and its suburbs. UNHCR has set up a transit centre at the Elubo border crossing, as well as a refugee camp in the town of Ampain that can hold 3,000 people. The agency is providing food and relief items while racing to complete works on water, health and sanitation facilities.

‘In a country where the opposition isn’t strong and structured enough to provide a counterweight to a repressive regime which flouts the principles of democracy and good governance, the media provides a rare space for some amount of freedom of expression. But now, the media have also become part of the Togolese regime’s blacklist,’ writes Bernard Bokodjin.

On 29 December 2010 Togolese authorities closed down three privately-owned radio stations in the capital, Lomé, citing administrative reasons. A statement issued by the Post and Telecommunications' Regulatory Authority and signed by Palouki Massina, its director general, said the decision was taken after a 10-day joint review of the stations, together with the High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC), in November 2010.

French officials have condemned a senior soldier who was filmed threatening a Togolese journalist. In a video released on YouTube, Lt Col Romuald Letondot is shown ordering the journalist to delete images from his camera during a protest in Lome.

On June 17th, the third panafrican conference on best practices in ICT in francophone Africa opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso [fr]. While the conference focused on strategies to curb cyber-criminality, the Togolese blogosphere is embracing the potential of information technology for development, especially women and young people.

A veteran opposition leader in Togo has said he will enter into a power-sharing deal with the government. Gilchrist Olympio told the BBC that his party will get eight ministerial posts in the coalition. President Faure Gnassingbe won re-election in March, although the opposition alleged irregularities in the vote-counting system.

Ghana and Togo on Wednesday agreed that about a 1,000 Ghanaians, and not 3,500, were sheltering in Togo after fleeing ethnic conflict in Ghana's Northern Region. The figure was agreed after a closed-door meeting between a Togolese government delegation led by National Security Minister Colonel Mohammed Atcha Titikpina and Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills and senior security officials in Accra.