As they have done half a dozen times since the beginning of the year, doctors and nurses again went on strike in late March, walking out of the central hospital, blocking new patients from entering and encouraging existing patients to seek private treatment elsewhere. “When you accept to work in these conditions, you might be complicit in a situation that could cause death. You are responsible,” said Dr. David Dosseh, a surgeon at the central hospital who helped organize the strikes. “So at a certain moment, you have to ask if it’s better to just stop working.” Critics say the pervasive problems in Togo’s medical system — where equipment frequently malfunctions, electricity and water supplies are unreliable and new doctors earn less than taxi drivers — are the result of government corruption and ineptitude. But the current unrest in Togo extends far beyond the nation’s troubled health care system. Dr. Dosseh and his colleagues said their frustrations with the government were aligned with those of university students, public schoolteachers, and others who have led a recent wave of protests against President Faure Gnassingbé, whose family has ruled Togo for 50 years. While doctors have kept clear of street demonstrations and confined their opposition to strikes, their status as medical professionals, and their intimate involvement with the daily miseries of life in the capital, has put them at the forefront of the movement calling for Mr. Gnassingbé to be removed from power. “People have a lot of respect and consideration for the doctors,” said Farida Nabourema, a prominent opposition activist. “The strikes are a key part of the resistance.” Mr. Gnassingbé, who succeeded his father as president in 2005 in an election marred by violence and accusations of fraud, supported legislation introduced last fall that would put in place presidential term limits — but which exempted his current and previous terms, allowing him to run again in 2020 and 2025. That bill was angrily voted down by opposition lawmakers and led to demonstrations around the country. Protesters’ frustrations were also stoked by a dismal economy, crumbling schools and expectations raised by the ouster of other longstanding African leaders like President Yahya Jammeh; Gambia’s ex-president, who was voted out of office in 2016; and Robert Mugabe, who resigned in November after 37 years as president of Zimbabwe. Mr. Gnassingbé’s government countered with sweeping arrests of opposition politicians, internet blackouts, crackdowns on social media and, according to Amnesty International, beatings and torture by the federal police. Source
