MADRID, 30 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coup d’état carried out this Wednesday by a group of soldiers from Gabon once again reflects the increase in political instability on the African continent, whose central and western region has witnessed a dozen successful riots since 2017, in case it is confirmed that this new attempt comes to fruition.
A group of twelve soldiers appeared early in the day to announce the suspension of the results of the elections on Saturday, in which the president, Ali Bongo, would have obtained a third term after collecting more than 64 percent of the votes, for the 30.77 percent obtained by the main opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa.
The person in charge of reading the statement has defended that its objective is to “defend peace by putting an end to the current regime” and has argued that the results are “false”, before stressing that the recent elections “did not meet the conditions of transparency, credibility and inclusiveness expected by the Gabonese”.
Subsequently, he confirmed that Bongo has been placed under house arrest, without the authorities having commented for now, amid spontaneous demonstrations by dozens of people in the capital, Libreville, in support of the coup plotters and after Brice Oligui Nguema , head of the Republican Guard – the president’s ‘praetorian guard’ – was carried out on the shoulders of the military amid shouts of “president, president.”
Oligui Nguema himself has revealed in an interview with the French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ that there will soon be a meeting with the Army generals to reach “a consensus” on the person who “will lead the transition”, which suggests that the coup would be consolidating and could be successful, ending a Bongo family dynasty that spans more than 50 years.
The riot has taken place amid suspicions of fraud surrounding the elections, already common in recent decades in the country – led between 1967 and 2009 by Omar Bongo, father of the current president, and later by his son – , and in the face of growing complaints of corruption and mismanagement by the Government, accentuated by the deepening economic crisis in Gabon.
The West and Central Africa region, which for decades was considered the ‘coup belt’, had made progress in terms of political stability in recent decades, although since 2020 it has been the scene of several riots, including seven successful ones. , to which the attempt in Gabon could be added in the coming days.
Most of the coups registered on the continent since 2012 have had their epicenter in the Sahel region, with a total of three in Mali –including two in 2020 and 2021 that have consolidated the junta currently led by Assimi Goita– and others. two in Burkina Faso –both in 2022, after two attempts in 2015 and 2016–.
Added to these are the recent coup perpetrated at the end of July in Niger, which led to the overthrow of the hitherto president, Mohamed Bazoum, and the establishment of a junta led by Abdourahmane Tchiani, although the country is under threat of military intervention by part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) –which for now prioritizes the diplomatic channel– to restore constitutional order.
Likewise, Chad is led by a transitional government led by the head of the military junta established in 2021 after the death in combat of the then president, Idriss Déby, during an offensive by the rebel group Front for Alternation and Harmony in Chad ( FACT). After his death, his son Mahamat Idriss Déby was placed in charge of the country by the Army and the institutions in force until then were dissolved to open a transition.
This belt that runs through the continent from east to west includes Guinea, which suffered a coup in September 2021 that brought down Alpha Condé after opposition complaints about its victory for a controversial third term at the helm of the country, and Sudan, the scene of a 2019 coup that ousted Omar Hassan al-Bashir after months of protests against his regime.
A second coup shook Sudan in September 2021, led again by the head of the Army, Abdelfatá al Burhan, who fired the then prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok. The new transition open in 2022 has led to an open war in April between the Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) -now considered a rebel group- due to differences regarding the integration of its members into the Army ranks.
In addition, Guinea Bissau was the scene of a coup in 2012 –followed by an attempt in February 2022–, while, outside this part of the continent, Egypt witnessed another coup in 2013 that brought the now president, Abdelfatá, to power. al Sisi, who overthrew the Islamist Mohamed Mursi, who in 2012 became the first elected president of the African country after the resignation a year before of Hosni Mubarak in the framework of the Arab Spring protests.
Also in North Africa, the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, carried out a self-coup in 2021 by dissolving the Government and Parliament and promoting a constitutional reform that strengthens their powers and that has led the opposition to denounce an authoritarian drift, marked by arrests of activists and dissidents.
Added to all this is the case of Zimbabwe, which was the scene in 2017 of a bloodless coup d’état that put an end to decades of Robert Mugabe’s rule and brought Emmerson Mnangagwa to the Presidency, recently re-elected amid allegations of fraud by of the main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, who has assured that it was he who won the polls.
If it goes ahead, it would be the first successful coup in Gabon since its independence from France in 1960 –after the frustrated attempts in 1964, two in 1990 and 2019–, in full increase of the riots in former French colonies In the continent.
A study carried out in 2022 by American researchers Jonathan Powell and Clayton Thyne reveals that the continent was the scene of 210 coups from 1955 to January 25 of that year –to which should be added the two in Burkina Faso , the attempts in Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Sao Tome and Principe, Niger and Gabon–, close to half of them, successful.
Powell indicated then that the coups are generally “limited to the poorest countries in the world” and tend to take place in the face of serious security threats or civil wars, although he also indicated that the pandemic has played a role in the situation by undermining the resources available in vulnerable countries that have deepened their economic crises, according to the Axios news portal.
Powell’s argument regarding the influence of security in this situation is reflected in what happened in the countries of the Sahel, shaken by an increase in attacks by jihadist groups that has led the military of these countries to shoot down governments alleging mismanagement of the situation and promising to strengthen security.
The African continent has been the one that has registered the most coups d’état in history and, in fact, of the 18 riots registered worldwide since 2017, all except one –the February 2021 military coup in Burma– have took place in Africa.
Regarding the number of coups and attempts on the continent, Sudan appears as the main scene of the same, with 17, followed by Burundi, with eleven; Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Ghana, with ten; Comoros and Guinea Bissau, with nine; Mali, Benin, Niger and Nigeria, with eight, and Chad, with seven.
