'He just wanted to play football': A family mourns a 15-year-old as Togo cracks down on protests

LOME, Togo (AP) — The family courtyard where Jacques Koami Koutoglo used to play football with his cousins in a working-class neighborhood in Togo 's capital now sits silent. The ball he once kicked around lies deflated beside a bundle of firewood.

“Jacques died for Togo," his uncle, Koutoglo Kossi Mawuli, said quietly, eyes heavy with grief.

The 15-year-old is one of several people who died during mass protests in the West African nation against constitutional changes that many fear will cement President Faure Gnassingbé’s grip on power — and lengthen a ruling dynasty that has lasted over half a century.

The 59-year-old Gnassingbé, who has ruled since 2005 after his father's death, was sworn in as president of the Council of Ministers in May. The executive body was created last year with little notice by a parliament whose term had just expired, and Gnassingbé swiftly signed off on the constitutional change despite public outcry. The new role has no term limits, and Gnassingbé can stay on indefinitely.

Local civil society groups and social media influencers had called for protests last month after the government announced a clampdown on demonstrations. Many young Togolese are drawing inspiration from recent uprisings across West Africa, where youth movements challenged entrenched regimes.

Koutoglo had just completed secondary school and was eagerly waiting for exam results. He had dreams of becoming a footballer and spent evenings practicing his moves. He often helped at his uncle’s cafeteria during school breaks.

On the morning of June 26, the day of the protests, he vanished.

“Since our family compound is large and full of cousins, we assumed he was with someone else," Mawuli said. But when evening came and the boy hadn’t returned, unease turned into panic.

The next day, a fisherman discovered a body floating in the lagoon a hundred meters (yards) from their home. The family rushed to the scene. It was Koutoglo. His face was bruised, and blood had streamed from his nose.

"He didn’t go to any rally,” Mawuli said. “He must have panicked when he heard the tear gas and gunshots. He got caught up in the chaos.”

Civil society groups say at least five people, including Koutoglo, died during the demonstrations and dozens were injured, and accuse security forces of making arbitrary arrests, assaulting civilians with batons and ropes, and looting or vandalizing private property.

In Koutoglo's neighborhood of Bè, a densely populated and historically restive part of Lomé, witnesses described security forces chasing down youth, even into private homes.

“They came into our courtyard. They fired gas. They beat people,” said a neighbor who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Koutoglo was buried swiftly, in line with local customs for those who die violently. The other victims were taken to the morgue.

Koutoglo's uncle said the family intends to press charges and demand an independent investigation into his nephew's death.

“You can’t just beat our children to death and expect us to be silent. We are tired," he said.

Civil society groups said the justice system has made no arrests and has not requested an autopsy.

"These acts, marked by unspeakable cruelty, amount to a state crime. The perpetrators struck without restraint and killed without distinction,” they said in a statement.

In a statement read out on state television, Togo’s government acknowledged that bodies were recovered from the Bè lagoon and the Akodessewa lake but said the victims died from drowning. The government said there would be a further investigation.

Across Togo, Koutoglo’s name has joined a long list of young lives cut short during moments of national tension.

“This is not the first time,” Mawuli said. “Back in 2017, children died too. It’s like nothing ever changes. But this time, we refuse to stay quiet.”

In 2017 and 2018, mass protests challenged President Faure Gnassingbé’s long rule. A government crackdown left at least 16 dead, including teenagers.

To those still protesting, Mawuli sent a message of solidarity: “Don’t give up. This fight is for our children. For Jacques. For all of us.”

New protests are planned for July 16 and 17.

Fabien Offner, a researcher with Amnesty International, said Togo has a “repressive architecture” that has normalized arbitrary arrests, beatings and impunity.

"They’re routine now,” he said. “And the lack of global reaction only deepens the crisis.”

Government spokesman Gilbert Bawara defended the state’s approach. He told reporters the recent constitutional changes followed proper procedures, and dismissed allegations of systemic abuse.

“If there are grievances, let them be addressed through lawful channels,” he said.

But with opposition figures sidelined, institutions dominated by the ruling party and elections widely seen as flawed, critics say these channels offer little hope.

Relatives of the late 15-year old Jacques Koami Koutoglo, attend a prayer service at a church in Lome, Togo, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Relatives of late 15-year-old Jacques Koami Koutoglo, sit outside their house as they mourn in Lome, Togo, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Koutoglo Kossi Mawuli, the uncle of Jacques Koami Koutoglo, shows a portrait of Jacques on his mobile phone in Lome, Togo, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Koutoglo Kossi Mawuli, Left, the uncle of late 15-year-old Jacques Koami Koutoglo, speaks to cousins outside their house in Lome, Togo, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Koutoglo Kossi Mawuli, points at the lagoon where the body of Jacques Koami Koutoglo, was recovered in Lome, Togo, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Cousins of late 15-year-old Jacques Koami Koutoglo, play outside their house in Lome, Togo, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

Koutoglo Kossi Mawuli, the uncle of late 15-year-old Jacques Koami Koutoglo, shows a photograph of his body on a mobile phone after it was recovered from a lagoon in Lome, Togo, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Erick Kaglan)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)