printable banner

U.S. Department of State - Great Seal

U.S. Department of State

Diplomacy in Action

Togo (10/97)



Republic of Togo

Cities: Capital--Lome (pop. 1989 est. 600,000).
Terrain: Savannah and hills and coastal plain.
Climate: Tropical.

Nationality: Noun and adjective--Togolese (sing. and pl.).
Population (1994 est.): 3.9 million.
Annual growth rate (1996 est.): 6%.
Religions: Animist 50%, Christian 30%, Muslim 20%.
Education: Attendance (1987 est.)--70% of age group 5-19 enrolled. Literacy (1990 est.)--male 43%, female 31%.
Health: Life expectancy (1992 est.)--male 53 yrs., female 57 yrs.
Work force: (160,000): Agriculture--65%; commerce--29%; industry--less than 5%.

Type: Republic.
Independence: April 27, 1960.
Constitution: Adopted 1992.
Subdivisions: 30 Prefectures.
Political parties: Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT); Comite d'action pour le Renouveau (CAR), and Union Togolaise pour la Democratie (UTD).
Suffrage: Universal adult.
National holiday: April 27, Independence Day.

GDP (1994 est.): $1.04 billion.
Per capita income (1994): $260.
Natural resources: Phosphates, limestone, marble.
Agriculture (42% of 1994 GDP): Products--yams, cassava, corn, millet, sorghum, cocoa, coffee, rice, cotton.
Industry (21% of 1994 GDP): Types--mining, manufacturing, construction, energy. Trade (1994): Exports--$249 million: phosphates, textiles, cocoa, coffee, cotton. Imports--$330 million: consumer goods, including foodstuffs, fabrics, clothes, vehicles, equipment. Major partners--France, U.K., Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, People's Republic of China, U.S., Poland.

Togo is bounded by Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, and the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches 579 kilometers (360 mi.) north from the gulf and is only 160 kilometers (100 mi.) wide at the broadest point. The country consists primarily of two savannah plains regions separated by a southwest-northwest range of hills (the Chaine du Togo).

Togo's climate varies from tropical to savannah. The south is humid, with temperatures ranging from 23 degrees C to 32 degrees C (75 degrees F-90 degrees F). In the north, temperature fluctuations are greater--from 18 degrees C to more than 38 degrees C (65 degrees F-100 degrees  F).

Togo's population of 3.9 million people (1994 estimate) is composed of about 21 ethnic groups. The two major groups are the Ewe in the South and the Kabye in the North.

Population distribution is very uneven due to soil and terrain variations. The population is generally concentrated in the south and along the major north-south highway connecting the coast to the Sahel. Age distribution is also uneven; more than one-half of the Togolese are less than 15 years of age. The ethnic groups of the coastal region, particularly the Ewes (about 25% of the population), constitute the bulk of the civil servants, professionals, and merchants, due in part to the former colonial administrations which provided greater infrastructure development in the south. The Kabye (15% of the population) live on submarginal land and traditionally have emigrated south from their home area in the Kara region to seek employment. Their historical means of social advancement has been through the military and law enforcement forces, and they continue to dominate these services.


The Ewes moved into the area which is now Togo from the Niger river valley between the 12th and 14th centuries. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese explorers and traders visited the coast. For the next 200 years, the coastal region was a major raiding center for Europeans in search of slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast."


After World War II, the mandate became a UN trust territory administered by the United Kingdom and France. During the mandate and trusteeship periods, Western Togo was administered as part of the British Gold Coast. In 1957, the residents of British Togoland voted to join the Gold Coast as part of the new independent nation of Ghana.


A new constitution in 1961 established an executive president, elected for seven years by universal suffrage, and a weak National Assembly. The president was empowered to appoint ministers and dissolve the assembly, holding a monopoly of executive power. In elections that year, from which Grunitzky's party was disqualified, Olympio's party won 90% of the vote and all 51 National Assembly seats, and he became Togo's first elected president.


On January 13, 1963, President Olympio was assassinated in an uprising of army non-commissioned officers dissatisfied with conditions following their discharge from the French army. Grunitzky returned from exile two days later to head a provisional government with the title of prime minister. On May 5, 1963, the Togolese adopted a new constitution which reinstated a multiparty system, chose deputies from all political parties for the National Assembly, and elected Grunitzky as president and Antoine Meatchi as vice president. Nine days later, President Grunitzky formed a government in which all parties were represented.


In late 1979, Eyadema declared a third republic and a transition to a more civilian rule with a mixed civilian and military cabinet. He garnered 99.97% of the vote in uncontested presidential elections held in late 1979 and early 1980. A new constitution also provided for a national assembly to serve primarily as a consultative body. Eyadema was reelected to a third consecutive seven-year term in December 1986 with 99.5% of the vote in an uncontested election. On September 23, 1986, a group of some 70 armed Togolese dissidents crossed into Lome from Ghana in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Eyadema government.

In 1989 and 1990, Togo, like many other countries, was affected by the winds of democratic change sweeping eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. On October 5, 1990, the trial of students who handed out anti-government tracts sparked riots in Lome. The months that followed were marked by anti-government demonstrations and violent clashes with the security forces. In April 1991, the government began negotiations with newly formed opposition groups and agreed to a general amnesty which permitted exiled political opponents to return to Togo. After a general strike and further demonstrations, the government and opposition signed an agreement to hold a "national forum" on June 12, 1991.

The national forum, dominated by opponents of President Eyadema, opened in July 1991 and immediately declared itself to be a sovereign "National Conference." Although subjected to severe harassment from the government, the conference drafted an interim constitution calling for a one-year transitional regime tasked with organizing free elections for a new government. The conference selected Kokou Joseph Koffigoh, a lawyer and human rights group head, as transitional prime minister, but kept President Eyadema as chief of state for the transition, although with limited powers.

A test of wills between the president and his opponents followed over the next three years during which President Eyadema gradually gained the upper hand. This period was marked by frequent political paralysis and intermittent violence.

Following a vote by the transitional legislature (High Council of the Republic) to dissolve the President's political party-the RPT-in November 1991, the army attacked the prime minister's office on December 3 and captured the prime minister. Under duress, Koffigoh then formed a second transition government in January 1992 with substantial participation by ministers from the President's party. Opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, son of the slain president Sylvanus Olympio, was ambushed and seriously wounded apparently by soldiers on May 5, 1992, and another opposition leader, Tavio Amorin, was assassinated in July.

In July and August 1992, a commission composed of presidential and opposition representatives negotiated a new political agreement. This agreement extended the transition period until the end of 1992 and restored substantial power to President Eyadema. A new, third transition government was formed by Prime Minister Koffigoh with considerable participation by supporters of President Eyadema. The government was mandated to hold elections in the near future. On September 27, the public overwhelmingly approved the text of a new, democratic constitution, formally initiating Togo's fourth republic.


In January 1993, President Eyadema declared the transition at an end and reappointed Koffigoh as prime minister under Eyadema's authority. This set off public demonstrations, and, on January 25, members of the security forces fired on peaceful demonstrators in the presence of the French Cooperation Minister and German Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, killing at least 19. In the ensuing days, several security force members were waylaid and injured or killed by civilian oppositionists. On January 30, 1994, elements of the military went on an eight-hour rampage throughout Lome, firing indiscriminately and killing at least 12 people. This incident provoked more than 300,000 Togolese to flee Lome for Benin, Ghana, or the interior of Togo. Although most had returned by early 1996, some still remain abroad.



A new commando attack on military sites in Lome was launched by Ghana-based armed dissidents on January 5-7, 1994. Although President Eyadema was unscathed, the attack and subsequent reaction by the Togolese armed forces resulted in hundreds of deaths, mostly civilian.

The government went ahead with legislative elections on February 6 and February 20, 1994. In generally free and fair polls as witnessed by international observers, the allied opposition parties UTD and CAR together won a narrow majority in the National Assembly. On April 22, President Eyadema named Edem Kodjo, the head of the smaller opposition party, the UTD, as prime minister instead of Yawovi Agboyibo, whose CAR party had far more seats. Kodjo's acceptance of the prime ministership provoked the CAR to break the opposition alliance and refuse to join the Kodjo government. Kodjo was then forced to form a governing coalition with the RPT. The National Assembly approved the new government, about half of whose cabinet members were associated with the RPT, on June 24. Kodjo's announced program emphasized economic recovery, building democratic institutions and the rule of law and the return of Togolese refugees abroad. In early 1995, the government made slow progress toward its goals, aided by the CAR's August 1995 decision to end a nine-month boycott of the National Assembly. By late 1995, however, Kodjo was forced to reshuffle his government, strengthening the representation by Eyadema's RPT party. Since the beginning of 1996 it has been increasingly clear that Eyadema has resumed control of most aspects of government.

On December 15, 1994, the National Assembly approved a general amnesty for political offenses, resulting in the release of more than two dozen prisoners. In August 1995, the government signed an accord with the UNHCR on the repatriation of Togolese refugees who remained in Ghana and Benin.

With the adoption of the new constitution in 1992, presidential and legislative elections in 1993 and 1994, and the installation of a freely elected National Assembly and formation of a new government based on the legislative results in 1994, Togo has acquired nascent democratic institutions, but these remain fragile and only partially developed. President Eyadema, who ruled under a one-party system for nearly 25 years, remains the dominant political figure and retains effective control of the security forces.


Principal Government Officials
President--Gen. Gnassingbe Eyadema
Prime Minister--Kwassi Klutse
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation--Koffi Panou

Subsistence agriculture and commerce are the main economic activities in Togo; the majority of the population depends on subsistence agriculture. Food and cash crop production employ the majority of the labor force and contribute about 42% to the gross domestic product (GDP). Coffee and cocoa are traditionally the major cash crops for export, but cotton cultivation increased rapidly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with 84,500 metric tons produced in 1994. Despite insufficient rainfall in some areas, the Togolese Government largely has achieved its goal of self-sufficiency in food crops-corn, cassava, yams, sorghum, millet, and groundnut. Food crop production is controlled by small and medium-sized farms; average farm size is one to three hectares.


In the industrial sector, phosphates are Togo's most important commodity, and the country has an estimated 130 million metric tons of phosphate reserves. Togo exported 2.4 million metric tons of phosphates in 1994, mainly to South Africa, Canada, and the Philippines. Togo also has substantial limestone and marble deposits.



Togo returned to the Paris Club in 1995 and received Naples terms, the Club's most concessionary rates. With the economic downturn associated with Togo's political problems, scheduled external debt service obligations for 1994 were greater than 100% of projected government revenues (excluding bilateral and multilateral assistance).


Although Togo's foreign policy is non-aligned, it has strong historical and cultural ties with Western Europe, especially France and Germany. Togo recognizes the People's Republic of China and North Korea. It reestablished relations with Israel in 1987.

Togo pursues an active foreign policy and participates in many international organizations. It is particularly active in West African regional affairs and in the Organization of African Unity. Relations between Togo and neighboring states are generally good.



As of 1996, U.S. economic aid to Togo includes about 100 Peace Corps volunteers and health-related projects amounting to more than US$2 million. There is an active cultural and information exchange program run by the USIS cultural center.

U.S.-Togolese relations have been somewhat strained as a result of human rights abuses and the halting progress of the democratic transition. U.S. military assistance was suspended in the wake of political violence by members of the security forces in 1991, and most economic assistance was suspended after further army violence in late 1992. The USAID office in Lome was closed in 1994.

Principal U.S. Officials
Deputy Chief of Mission--Terence P. McCulley
Public Affairs officer (USIS)--Theodore A. Boyd
Peace Corps Director--James F. Bell

The U.S. embassy is located at Rue Pelletier and Rue Vauban, Lome (tel: 21-29-91/94). The mailing address is B.P. 852, Lome, Togo (international mail) and Lome, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-2300 (by diplomatic pouch).

Back to Top

