2005 — Eyadéma's Death and the Dynastic Succession

On February 5, 2005, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who had ruled Togo for thirty-eight years, died of a heart attack aboard a plane evacuating him for treatment abroad. Within hours, the army installed his son Faure Gnassingbé as president, bypassing the constitutional successor.

Under regional pressure, Faure stepped aside, then won a disputed election. He still rules Togo today, and the family's grip on power now stretches nearly sixty years. The succession showed how quickly an army could set aside a constitution, and how a ruling family's hold could pass from father to son almost without pause. Thirty-eight years of one man's rule became, overnight, a family inheritance that Togolese voters never chose at the start.