Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé

Biography

Faure Gnassingbé was born in Afagnan, Togo, in 1966, one of the many children of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma. After secondary school in Lomé he studied financial management at Paris Dauphine University and took an MBA at George Washington University. He joined his father's Rally of the Togolese People in 1990, was elected to the National Assembly for Blitta in 2002, and in July 2003 became minister of equipment, mines, posts and telecommunications.

When Eyadéma died on 5 February 2005, the army installed Faure as president, and the National Assembly removed its speaker and elected him in his place to give the succession legal cover. The African Union called it a military coup, and under regional pressure, especially from Nigeria, he stepped down on 25 February. He was then chosen as the ruling party's candidate and leader and won the presidential election of 24 April 2005, which observers judged fraudulent; the protests that followed were met with deadly force and tens of thousands fled to Benin and Ghana.

He was re-elected in 2010, 2015 and 2020, the last after a 2019 constitutional change that let him seek further terms; since 2012 his party has been the Union for the Republic. Critics accuse him of democratic backsliding, and his government has faced repeated protests calling for an end to the family's rule.

A 2024 constitution turned Togo into a parliamentary republic and moved most executive power to a new post of President of the Council of Ministers, which has no term limit. Gnassingbé took that office on 3 May 2025, while the presidency became largely ceremonial. In 2025 the African Union also named him its mediator for the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.