Since his first public engagements in July 2021, he has faced various forms of intimidation, including anonymous threats, administrative pressure, and summons issued by university authorities, accompanied by threats of disciplinary sanctions.

Despite this pressure, he continued his commitment to defending the material and moral interests of Togolese pupils and students. On 19 April 2024, he was summoned before the disciplinary council of the University of Lomé following his public statements against the then-ongoing constitutional reform in Togo. This summons was ultimately cancelled following mobilization by his fellow students as well as human rights defenders.

On 30 June 2024, he took part in a protest meeting organized in Lomé by a coalition of opposition political parties and civil society organizations. On that occasion, he publicly denounced the living and study conditions of Togolese pupils and students.

On the night following this mobilization, around thirty masked soldiers broke into his father’s home in Tchimouri, a locality located more than 600 kilometers from Lomé. He was arrested without legal grounds, detained for about ten days, and subjected to inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment despite his fragile health condition. No official justification was provided regarding this arrest or the conditions of his detention.

On 6 June 2025, Bertin BANDIANGOU himself was arrested for peacefully participating in a demonstration denouncing the high cost of living and the forced psychiatric hospitalization of the activist rapper Aamron. During his detention, he was subjected to acts of torture and degrading treatment before being released on the night of 9 June 2025.

On 22 August 2025, while he was in Ouagadougou for the 32nd ordinary congress of the General Union of Burkinabè Students (UGEB), a new wave of arrests targeted his fellow student activists in Togo. Seven of his collaborators and close associates were arrested and detained, including two members of SEET.

After the UGEB congress, Bertin BANDIANGOU quietly returned to Lomé on 1 September 2025. His absence from Togolese territory since the beginning of August had temporarily reduced attention to his movements. However, on 3 September 2025, two key members of his organization, including the SEET Secretary General, were arrested.

Having quickly been informed of these arrests and fearing another arbitrary detention, he left his home the same day, while intelligence agents placed his residence and those of several of his relatives under continuous surveillance.

On 5 September 2025, he managed to discreetly leave Togolese territory to seek safety.

Since leaving Togo, Bertin BANDIANGOU has been living in a situation of wandering and forced exile across several African countries. This situation is accompanied by severe economic hardship due to the absence of stable income and means of subsistence, as well as profound physical and psychological exhaustion caused by ongoing instability and the consequences of the violence endured.

He remains in a highly vulnerable situation today and lives in constant fear for his physical safety. This concern is reinforced by existing cooperation mechanisms between certain states in the sub-region and the risk of being located, arrested, or extradited to Togo due to his activist engagement and public statements.

In light of the persecutions, arbitrary arrests, acts of torture, intimidation, and threats he has been subjected to, Bertin BANDIANGOU believes he can no longer return to Togo without facing a serious risk to his freedom, safety, and physical integrity.