How and why West Africa has become Africa's coup hotspot

ECOWAS grappling with recent wave of coups

Insecurity and lack of good governance main drivers of coups

ECOWAS, AU suspend Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso

West African political bloc ECOWAS has had a busy last two years because of Constitutional overthrows and foiled attempts.

Barely two months into 2022, the bloc has had to deal with a successful

Read full articlecoup and to condemn, as usual, another that was luckily quelled.

2022's coups took place in Burkina Faso in the last week of January 2022 and the failed coup in Guinea-Bissau in early February.

The coup wave or 'contagion' as the United Nations Secretary-General chose to call it started in April 2020 in Mali where a relatively unknown special force member emerged leader of a coup that removed President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita from office in 2020.

That officer was Assimi Goita, who became deputy leader of a transitional government. Nine months later, he ousted his boss, Bah Ndaw and assumed the reigns as President and leader of the transitional government.

Later in 2021, specifically on September 5, the wave arrived in Guinea-Conakry. There also, a member of the presidential guard, Mamady Doumbouya, announced the ouster of his boss Alpha Conde.

He subsequently took over as leader of the transition.

The case of Burkina Faso, saw the ouster of Christian Roch Marc Kabore as President, he was forced to resign by a junta led by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

The junta suspended the Constitution after the ouster but did a U-turn by reinstating it a week later.

All three countries have been suspended by ECOWAS with the African Union following suit. Sanctions have since been imposed on the Guinea and Mali juntas.

Experts speak on possible drivers of takeovers

Joseph Siegle, research director at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, shared his views with VOX: “I think yes, the broader point is there has been a pattern after a period of relatively fewer coups.”

Siegle continued: “It’s reasonable to assume that there’s some copycatting going on, or the norm of militaries not being involved [in government] or seizing power has been broken.”

Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch put down the motivations of juntas to the fact that governance and rule of law institutions are weak in many countries in the region.

“And when societies are tested by insecurity and profound brutality against civilians, it may make some people more willing to accept less democratic military rule,” Dufka said.

North Africa continues to deal with a volatile Libya, over a decade after Gaddafi's ouster. In the Horn of Africa, Sundanese generals have usurped power meant for civilians in a transition and Ethiopia is just coming out of a brutal civil war.

In Central Africa, Gabon foiled a coup in early 2019 and Chad managed a 'democratic' coup after the death of President Idris Deby. Read more in the Reuters analysis below.

Southern Africa by far remains the continent's most stable bloc. Member states moved in to assist Mozambique quell a rising terrorist insurgency. Rwanda had already moved in to support the fight before SADC's deployment.

Will West Africa be able to bond and bind and to stave off any further coups or attempts. Are the travel and economic sanctions the best way to deal with coups? These are questions that experts will have to explore into some more detail.

REUTERS REPORT ON POST-DEBY COUP IN CHAD

Chad's army took power in April 2021 after President Idriss Deby was killed while visiting Chadian troops fighting rebels in the north.

Under Chadian law, the speaker of parliament should have become president. But a military council stepped in and dissolved parliament in the name of ensuring stability.

Deby's son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, was named interim president and tasked with overseeing an 18-month transition to elections.

The other African country to have recorded a coup is Sudan in October 2021 after the military component of a transitional body established for the post-Omar Al-Bashir era decided to usurp power.

Abdul Fatteh Al-Burhan and his fellow soldiers were expected to handover power to the civilians on the transitional body when they announced a takeover with the excuse that there were security threats to the country's stability.