Togo: death of Zarifou Ayéva, foreign minister under Faure Gnassingbé
Togo is in mourning. Zarifou Ayéva, 83, former Minister of State in charge of Foreign Affairs and founding president of the Parti pour la Démocratie et le Renouveau (PDR), has died. Born in Sokodé, in the Tchaoudjo prefecture, Ayéva left his mark on Togolese political life from the 1970s as a senior civil servant, minister, and later as an opposition leader.
SUMMARY
Son of the late Dermane Ayéva, an executive of the Union of Chiefs and Populations of the North (UCPN), a progressive political party from the era of Togo’s struggle for independence, Zarifou Ayéva was the very first foreign minister under Faure Gnassingbé. Aged 83, the native of the Koumah royal family (Sokodé) was one of the architects of the struggle for the advent of democracy in the 1990s.
Zarifou Ayéva was born on April 22, 1942, in Sokodé. He first worked in the administration and public enterprises — appointed Minister of Trade, Industry and Transport in 1975, then held several portfolios, including Information at the end of the 1970s. At the turn of the 1990s, as Togo experienced waves of unrest and an uncertain democratic transition, Ayéva joined the opposition and became one of the main voices for political pluralism.
In May 1991, he founded the Parti pour la Démocratie et le Renouveau (PDR), which positioned itself as a moderate but visible opposition party on the national stage. He was a candidate in the 1998 presidential election, where he received a marginal share of the vote, but his role went beyond electoral results: he was a figure in political dialogue, sometimes involved in negotiations and unity governments.
Foreign Minister under Faure Gnassingbé
After the transition period surrounding Faure Gnassingbé’s rise to power in 2005, Zarifou Ayéva was appointed Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Integration (cabinet announced in June 2005). His appointment was part of a government that included personalities from different political families, in a context where the legitimacy of power and the need to stabilize the country shaped Togolese political life. He held this post until 2007, a period during which Togolese diplomacy had to deal with calls for democratic normalization and international pressure on national governance.
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