The main building of the Grand marché d’Anié, the economic heartbeat of Togo’s Plateaux region, was completely engulfed in flames overnight and reduced to ashes while traders could only stand and watch. No lives were lost, thankfully, but the material toll is staggering: hundreds of families have been ruined overnight, their goods, stock and savings gone up in smoke.
Yet beyond the shock and the pain of the victims, this fire is not a simple act of fate. It is the glaring symptom of state neglect and a chronic lack of foresight that have come to define how power is exercised in Lomé. The real question now is whether the regime of Faure Gnassingbé can afford to keep treating these disasters as isolated accidents.
Crumbling infrastructure inherited from another era
How can it be that in 2026, a market of such strategic importance has no modern fire safety system, no working water points and no clear access routes for emergency teams? The answer lies in the political record of the ruling power.
Since he took office in 2005, Faure Gnassingbé’s regime has shown itself incapable of sustainably modernising Togo’s local infrastructure. More than sixty years after his father, the late Gnassingbé Eyadéma, seized power, the current executive still operates on structures built in the last century, without any deep investment to adapt them to today’s demographic and economic realities.
The ’emerging Togo’ slogan versus the daily reality of Togolese citizens
While official speeches endlessly praise major construction projects, digitalisation and the attraction of foreign investment, conditions on the ground remain dramatically archaic:
- No prevention: Most of the country’s large markets — from Lomé to Kara and now Anié — remain genuine logistical powder kegs, lacking compliant electrical standards and risk prevention plans.
- Under-equipped emergency services: Firefighters, often alerted too late or held back by a lack of suitable equipment in the regions, can do little more than observe the scale of the damage.
- Living on past glory: The current power merely coasts on the security reputation and political foundations of the previous regime, without building a modern public policy to protect citizens and their property.
The urgent need to break with a culture of laissez-faire
After the historic fires that destroyed major markets in Lomé and Kara a few years ago, the tragedy in Anié proves that no lessons have been learned. The Togolese state cannot limit itself to sending ministerial delegations to hand out food or promise symbolic aid after every catastrophe.
A government’s true responsibility is to protect its citizens before disaster strikes. By leaving informal-sector economic actors to work in vulnerable, outdated infrastructure, the regime reveals the limits of a worn-out political model — one more concerned with its own survival than with the safety and well-being of the Togolese people.
