Five African Countries. Six Coups. In the Past 18 Months. Why Now?
Posted: 31 Jan 2022, 08:55
Five African Countries. Six Coups. Why Now?
Burkina Faso this week joined a list of countries that have recently experienced military takeovers — most plagued by insecurity, poor governance and frustrated youth. But there’s no one-size-fits-all explanation.
By Ruth Maclean
Jan. 28, 2022
In the past 18 months, in similar scenes, military leaders have toppled the governments of Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and now, Burkina Faso.
These five nations that have recently experienced military coups form a broken line that stretches across the wide bulge of Africa, from Guinea on the west coast to Sudan in the east.
First came Mali, in August 2020. The military took advantage of public anger at a stolen parliamentary election and the government’s failure to protect its people from violent extremists, and arrested President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and forced him to resign on state television. Mali actually had two coups in a nine-month span.
An unusual coup unfolded in Chad in April 2021. A president who had ruled for three decades was killed on the battlefield, and his son was quickly installed in his place — a violation of the Constitution.
In March 2021, there was a failed coup attempt in Niger, then in September 2021, it was Guinea’s turn: A high-ranking officer trained by the United States overthrew a president who had tried to cling to power. Then in October, it was Sudan’s: The country’s top generals seized power, tearing up a power-sharing deal that was supposed to lead to the country’s first free election in decades.
That’s more than 114 million people now ruled by soldiers who have illegally seized power. There were four successful coups in Africa in 2021 — there hadn’t been that many in a single calendar year since 1999. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “an epidemic of coup d’états.”
Read more...
https://www.nytimes.com/article/burkina ... -coup.html
Burkina Faso this week joined a list of countries that have recently experienced military takeovers — most plagued by insecurity, poor governance and frustrated youth. But there’s no one-size-fits-all explanation.
By Ruth Maclean
Jan. 28, 2022
In the past 18 months, in similar scenes, military leaders have toppled the governments of Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and now, Burkina Faso.
These five nations that have recently experienced military coups form a broken line that stretches across the wide bulge of Africa, from Guinea on the west coast to Sudan in the east.
First came Mali, in August 2020. The military took advantage of public anger at a stolen parliamentary election and the government’s failure to protect its people from violent extremists, and arrested President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and forced him to resign on state television. Mali actually had two coups in a nine-month span.
An unusual coup unfolded in Chad in April 2021. A president who had ruled for three decades was killed on the battlefield, and his son was quickly installed in his place — a violation of the Constitution.
In March 2021, there was a failed coup attempt in Niger, then in September 2021, it was Guinea’s turn: A high-ranking officer trained by the United States overthrew a president who had tried to cling to power. Then in October, it was Sudan’s: The country’s top generals seized power, tearing up a power-sharing deal that was supposed to lead to the country’s first free election in decades.
That’s more than 114 million people now ruled by soldiers who have illegally seized power. There were four successful coups in Africa in 2021 — there hadn’t been that many in a single calendar year since 1999. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “an epidemic of coup d’états.”
Read more...
https://www.nytimes.com/article/burkina ... -coup.html