SUMMARY

MTD (Mouvement Togolais pour la Démocratie; Togolese Movement for Democracy) was a Togolese opposition group that formed in France in February 1979. Motivated by discontent over corruption, state mismanagement and a growing personality cult surrounding President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, it sought to overthrow the Government of Togo by an attempted coup and replace it with MTD leadership in 1986.

The MTD was based in Paris because the one-party state system in Togo forced it to operate from exile. Although the demographic MTD membership was not specifically known, the group had 70 fighters that took part in its failed coup attempt in 1986. Nonetheless, whilst President Eyadéma was from northern Togo, the majority of those opposed to his governance were from the Ewe ethnic group that resided largely in the south of Togo. This population was alleged to have been behind other attempts to remove or undermine the Government of Togo under President Eyadéma.

In line with this, MTD’s leader was Gilchrist Olympio, who was an ethnic Ewe from southern Togo. He was also notably the son of Sylvanus Olympio; the first president of Togo, who was assassinated by Gnassingbé Eyadéma whilst seeking sanctuary at the US consulate in 1963. Following his father’s death, Gilchrist Olympio went into self-imposed exile in Paris where he formed the MTD. After MTD’s failed coup attempt, Olympio was sentenced to death in absentia for his reported involvement although he rejected the charge as “preposterous”. Nonetheless, he returned to Togo in 1991 under a general amnesty and went on to found the Union of Forces for Change political party after it became legal to form other political parties.

The Government of Togo claimed that the MTD had been backed by the governments of Ghana and Burkina Faso by allegedly assisting in the recruiting, arming and training of MTD forces. Some of the captured fighters also claimed that they had been trained in these countries. However, these allegations were rejected by both Ghana and Burkina Faso, and analysts commented that although some support may have been forthcoming, it is unclear whether it was sponsored by the governments of the two states.