February 5, 2005: 13 years ago, General Eyadema would have liked to have a state-of-the-art hospital in Togo

Failing to save his life, a well-equipped hospital in Togo in 2005 would have prevented Gnassingbe Eyadéma from dying in the air thousands of kilometers from the country he loved and ruled with an iron fist for 38 years .


 This man who has so marked the political life of Togo, made talk about him in Africa and in the world, conquered all the great titles of mediator without forgetting that of dictator, went away slowly without warning, in any case, not at the average Togolese who learns the news only on the screens of the national television, the news of the "national disaster" by the voice of Kofi Sama, prime minister at the time.



There are still areas of darkness about the circumstances of Gnassingbe Eyadema's death, but one thing is clear: The man beset by a crisis ran as usual to the over-equipped hospitals of a foreign country, a a real survival fight, a journey dotted with protocols of airs and borders as death knocked on the door.

Those who have rubbed shoulders, from the evaders to the adjuvants, each keep a rather striking memory 13 years later. A man of leadership and diplomacy will say some, a dictator for others.


Testimonials about Eyadema (Jean Degli and Joseph Kofigoh)

Today again the son of General Eyadema has entrusted his medical needs externally as well as a good part of his collaborators at the expenses of the taxpayer, this ordinary Togolese with the power of purchase non-existent for whom, a paracetamol tablet in the health centers is a miracle, for a good reason a scanner. This is not saying too much, health professionals have been observing since last week strike action to demand that public hospitals be equipped.