Another coup in another former French colony in Africa.
Just over a month after Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum was taken hostage by his own presidential guard, last week Gabon’s military seized power from elected leader Ali Bongo and placed him under house arrest.
Thus, Niger and Gabon join the series of coups that have taken place in recent years in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the poorest and most unstable regions in the world.
A coup d’état is usually defined as an illegal and overt attempt by the military – or other civilian officials – to topple the leaders in excercise.
Although the total number of attempted coups in Africa was high after various countries gained independence, averaging around four a year between 1960 and the late 1990s, beginning in the year 2000 there was a progressive reduction in the number of lifts.
But in recent years there has been a Renaissance of military interventions in Africa.
Before Niger and Gabon, it was Burkina Faso’s turn, where there were not one but two coups in 2022.
In January last year, Burkinabe’s then president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was overthrown by the army, whose leader was later ousted by lower-ranking soldiers on September 30, just eight months later.
And between 2020 and 2021 there were coups in five African countries: Chad, Mali (twice), Guinea, Sudan and Niger.
“The military coups they have returned The lack of unity among the international community does not help,” said the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, in 2021.
Two years later his words do not lose validity.
But why this new wave?
The “non-partisan” alternative
Cameroonian political analyst Leonard Mbulle says coups have become a new trend in Africa.
“We can no longer say that it is an isolated case,” he says in an interview with BBC Mundo.
The expert in African politics assures that there are several constants in countries where coups have occurred in recent years.
“In all of them there has been bad government, abuse of power, their respective economies were not growing much and in some cases there were leaders who have rigged the elections.”
Mbulle points out that one of the reasons many Africans see the military as a viable alternative it is that many of the ousted leaders have favored a particular ethnic group or region or have worked more for the benefit of their political party rather than for the people.
“The military is seen as a non-partisan institution that can work for the benefit of the nation,” he explains.
Condescending “neocolonialist” policies
Except for Sudan, all these nations were former French colonies that, since their independence, have remained within the zone of influence of the European country or what is known as “Franzafrica”.
Since 1990, about 80% of the 29 coups carried out in Africa Sub-Saharan Africa have occurred in former French colonies.
According to experts, more than a coincidence, there could be part of the reason.
Many in Africa tend to attribute regional instability to France, a former colonial power that still maintains a strong presence on the continent.
Anti-French sentiment has also been present in coup movements in various countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, where protests against France have been organized in which the flags of the European nation are often burned.
In Niger, for example, accusations that the now former president Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted in July this year, was a puppet at the service of French interests served to legitimize his dismissal.
In Mali, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, appointed prime minister by a military junta in September 2022, criticized the “neo-colonialist, condescending, paternalistic and revanchist policies” of France, a country that, according to him, had “denied him universal moral values ” and had stabbed Mali “in the back”.
French presence in Africa
Experts point out that while France cannot be blamed for all of the continent’s ills, political systems designed by the French colonial regime to extract resources have been widely reported.
And even after granting independence to its former colonies, France continued to be very present on the continent through different mechanisms.
Seven of the nine French-speaking West African states still use the CFA francwhich is pegged to the euro and controlled by the French treasury.
France also maintains a strong military presence on the continent thanks to defense agreements signed with different countries, although recent coups have significantly reduced this presence.
Burkina Faso’s military government in February ended a longstanding agreement allowing French troops to operate in the country, giving France a month to withdraw its forces.
Africa is the continent with the highest number of coups in the world.
Of the 18 coups recorded globally since 2017, all but one (Myanmar in 2021) took place in Africa.
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See original article on BBC