Since July 27, 2026, Togo’s former defence minister has refused all food to protest the harsh conditions she faces behind bars. Eleven months after her arrest for criticising Faure Gnassingbé’s governance, she is now using her own body as a megaphone for the dozens of political detainees still languishing in Togolese prisons.
On August 30, 2025, as Lomé erupted in protests led by a frustrated youth movement opposing soaring living costs and a constitutional reform that shifted Togo into a parliamentary system, Essozimna Marguerite Gnakadé took to the streets. The former defence minister—who made history as Togo’s first woman to lead the armed forces between 2020 and 2022—was quickly spotted by security forces and briefly sent home. Within weeks, she was arrested on September 17, 2025, for publicly questioning Faure Gnassingbé’s fitness to govern.
From power player to voice of the oppressed
Marguerite Gnakadé’s trajectory set her apart long before her imprisonment. Appointed defence minister in October 2020—despite lacking prior military experience—she was also the late Ernest Gnassingbé’s widow, making her part of the presidential family. Yet her allegiance to the ruling circle did not shield her when she chose to join the popular uprising instead of opposing it.
« We embark on this hunger strike not out of despair, but conviction. When justice remains silent, our bodies become our last cry. »
— Declaration from a group of hunger-striking political detainees, November 2025
Desperate measures amid worsening prison conditions
Gnakadé’s protest is not an isolated act. Over the past year, hunger strikes have emerged as one of the few tools available to Togolese political prisoners to demand change. In November 2025, thirty-seven detainees initiated a collective fast. By December, activist Grâce Koumayi and dual national Abdoul Aziz Goma had endured fifty days without food at Lomé’s civil prison, prompting prison authorities to take notice. Human rights groups have since called for immediate medical access for all hunger strikers.
Where does she stand among former officials behind bars?
Marguerite Gnakadé’s name often surfaces alongside those of Kpatcha Gnassingbé and General Félix Kadanga—two other former officials tied to Togo’s power structure. Yet their circumstances differ sharply from hers. Kpatcha Gnassingbé, half-brother of the president and former defence minister, spent sixteen years in detention after a coup attempt conviction before receiving a presidential pardon in late December 2025. General Kadanga, former army chief of staff, has been serving a twenty-year sentence since 2023 for complicity in a colonel’s murder.
Gnakadé remains the only one of the three still imprisoned solely for expressing political dissent.
The backdrop: Togo’s simmering unrest after constitutional reform
Since March 2024, when a new Constitution replaced the presidential system with a parliamentary one, Faure Gnassingbé has ruled as Council of Ministers president—a role with no term limits. Opposition factions branded the reform a « constitutional coup », fueling the 2025 youth-led « Gen Z » protests. Security forces cracked down harshly, leading to a wave of arrests that swelled the ranks of so-called « opinion prisoners ».
A presidential pardon in late December 2025 freed 1,511 detainees, hailed as a conciliatory gesture. Civil society groups, however, estimate around seventy political prisoners remain jailed.
Global calls for the release of Togo’s political detainees
Campaigns by organisations like « Don’t Touch My Constitution » and opposition parties continue to push for the release of Togo’s political detainees. These groups report that at least nine prisoners have died in custody since the crackdown began, with many others suffering lasting injuries from mistreatment. They demand the unconditional release of all political prisoners—including Marguerite Gnakadé—and urgent medical care for hunger strikers, whose health has deteriorated after eleven months in detention.
