Word: togo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week the sounds in the night came from real gunfire as angry mobs swept through the former French West Africa colony, located between Togo and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea. In Cotonou, the capital, and nearby Porto-Novo, the ragged crowds carried black-draped coffins and chanted war songs as they ransacked government offices, burned cars, hauled down the green, yellow and red national flag from public buildings, and demanded Maga's ouster. Bariba tribesmen from Maga's native northern region leaped into the fray in his defense and killed two demonstrators with bows and arrows...
...organizers agreed in advance on the makeup of a 56-member National Assembly, divided among virtually all political parties, including Olympio's Comité d'Union Unité Togolaise and its onetime youth wing, Juvento,* so that none has a majority. Backing up the whole package is Togo's French-trained army, whose discontent over low pay and manpower led to Olympio's overthrow. Its ranks have since been doubled...
...Togo...
...part of his economic austerity program, Olympio had stubbornly refused to expand Togo's flyspeck army beyond its standing strength of 250 men-exactly one company. This angered both the "army" and the demobilized, hard-eyed Togolese veterans of French colonial wars, who had fought from Indo-China to Algeria but could find no place in their homeland's armed forces. Recently, a tough ex-sergeant, Emmanuel Bodjolle, 35, jobless and with a family to support, organized a conspiracy with 30 other noncoms. Last week, after Olympio tore up a final plea to take into the service...
Olympio's successor is Nicolas Grunitzky, 49, his brother-in-law, who was swept out of office as territorial Premier for the French when Olympio took over five years ago. Grunitzky's first act was to announce that Togo would align itself with the Afro-Malagasy Union, the pro-French association of West Africa states. Then he declared free elections would soon follow. But, as so often happens in such circumstances, he decided it would be best to dissolve Parliament and rule alone until things settled down...