The African continent saw a significant increase in coups in the last year-and-a-half, with military figures carrying out takeovers in Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea, Chad and Mali. After Sudan’s coup in October 2021, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke of “an epidemic” of coups, including the events in Africa and a February 2021 coup in Myanmar. He described an “environment in which some military leaders feel they have total impunity” and “can do whatever they want because nothing will happen to them.”
Coups in Africa had been declining for much of the past two decades. In the 10 years before 2021, there had been on average less than one successful coup per year, according to U.S. researchers Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne at the University of Central Florida and the University of Kentucky, respectively, who consolidated their findings on their Arrested Dictatorship website.
The latest power grabs in Africa have raised concerns that the region could be backsliding from its progress toward greater democracy. Read More…
COUPS IN AFRICA
The African continent saw a significant increase in coups in the last year-and-a-half, with military figures carrying out takeovers in Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea, Chad and Mali. After Sudan’s coup in October 2021, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke of “an epidemic” of coups, including the events in Africa and a February 2021 coup in Myanmar. He described an “environment in which some military leaders feel they have total impunity” and “can do whatever they want because nothing will happen to them.”
Coups in Africa had been declining for much of the past two decades. In the 10 years before 2021, there had been on average less than one successful coup per year, according to U.S. researchers Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne at the University of Central Florida and the University of Kentucky, respectively, who consolidated their findings on their Arrested Dictatorship website.
The latest power grabs in Africa have raised concerns that the region could be backsliding from its progress toward greater democracy. Read More…