09-07-2025
'He just wanted to play football': A family mourns a 15-year-old as Togo cracks down on protests
LOME, Togo — 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.
