One more coup in Africa – simply 5 weeks after Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum was taken hostage by the troops of his personal presidential guard, Gabon’s Ali Bongo additionally finds himself detained in his personal residence.
A sudden assertion on nationwide tv within the early hours of Wednesday, to declare Mr Bongo the winner of final Sunday’s election, was adopted inside minutes by a second shock broadcast, as a clutch of troopers introduced the seizure of energy within the former French colony.
Later within the day, as footage of celebrating crowds emerged – after the brand new junta had lifted the web shutdown imposed by Mr Bongo’s regime on the eve of the polls and maintained the shutdown all through an opaque vote “rely” – the deposed head of state appeared in an internet video despatched from his place of confinement.
Wanting bewildered, he appealed – in English – for associates exterior to “make noise”, in obvious hope that exterior stress would possibly reverse the shock flip of occasions, a prospect that appears distant.
However even when Mr Bongo himself was caught unprepared by the coup, maybe Africa and the world shouldn’t have been.
The 26 July overthrow of Mr Bazoum in Niger gave ample warning that West and Central Africa’s “coup-epidemic” had not run its course.
In January final 12 months, it had been the flip of Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré to be deposed by troopers – whose chief was then himself dethroned by decrease rating counterparts on 30 September, simply eight months later.
And earlier than that, 2021 had introduced two coups in West Africa. In Could, Col Assimi Goïta, already creator of a earlier army takeover in Mali, had staged a second putsch to reassert his personal energy.
Then in September Guinea’s particular forces fought their manner into the Sékhoutouréyah palace in Conakry to take President Alpha Condé into custody.
And we must always not neglect Chad the place, following the April 2021 demise in battle of long-time strongman Idriss Déby Itno, a army council stepped in to make sure the succession of his son and, thus, the continuation of the regime.
What on earth is going on in West and Central Africa – and in former French colonies specifically?
Six years in the past the departure into exile of the electorally-defeated Gambian ruler Yahya Jammeh left each nation in West Africa beneath multi-party constitutional rule.
Within the centre of the continent some authoritarian regimes survived, however the period of army takeovers appeared gone.
But the previous three years have seen seven coups in 5 nations – plus the strong-armed army assumption of energy in Chad.
There are widespread components which have, on the very least, created circumstances by which troopers have felt they will step in with relative impunity, and infrequently with the assist of a giant slice of the city inhabitants, particularly pissed off younger folks.
Throughout a lot of West and Central Africa, youthful residents have develop into broadly disenchanted with the normal political class, even with those that have been legitimately elected to workplace.
Such disillusionment is fuelled by a raft of points – a scarcity of jobs and even casual financial alternatives for each graduates and people much less educated, perceived excessive ranges of corruption and privilege among the many elite, in addition to resentment on the persistent affect of France within the many nations the place it’s the former colonial energy.
However there may be additionally deep resentment on the manner many civilian rulers manipulate electoral processes or constitutional rule to extend their maintain on energy. The scrapping of presidential time period limits – after controversial amendments to constitutions – is a supply of particularly sore emotions.
And such abuses additionally undermine the ethical authority of our bodies such because the African Union – or the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (Ecowas), typically labelled an “incumbent presidents’ membership” – in in search of to pressure coup leaders to revive elected civilian rule.
The Central African regional bloc to which Gabon belongs doesn’t even have severe pretentions to determine or maintain governance requirements throughout member states.
However whereas all these components create a local weather by which troopers have felt more and more emboldened about seizing energy, claiming to supply a “contemporary begin”, every coup has additionally been pushed by particular nationwide or slim native motivations – and the takeover in Gabon isn’t any exception.
Many Gabonese had been sceptical about Mr Bongo’s determination to face for a 3rd time period. He first got here to energy in elections 14 years in the past following the demise of his father, Omar Bongo, who had monopolised the presidency for greater than 40 years.
There have been additionally severe doubts about his capability to supply efficient management, as he had suffered from a stroke in October 2018.
The deposed president’s rule did see severe efforts to modernise the federal government machine, diversify the economic system and deal with social inequality; and he earned worldwide plaudits for proactive and progressive efforts to guard Gabon’s rainforests and wealthy biodiversity. There have been some concessions to the political opposition.
However the reform momentum pale step by step, whereas the regime proved in the end unwilling to show itself to severe electoral problem.
Certainly, from the outset Mr Bongo’s legitimacy and political standing was undermined by the opaque conduct of the election that introduced him to energy in 2009. Many individuals thought that André Mba Obame, his foremost electoral rival, had most likely been the actual winner.
And when he stood for re-election in 2016, in a decent race in opposition to former international minister Jean Ping, he solely clinched a slim victory when official outcomes from Haut Ogooué area, the Bongo household’s political fiefdom, got here in, recording an unbelievably big variety of votes for him. But the polling station data of those supposed votes had been destroyed earlier than they might be checked.
Within the newest election, Mr Bongo was declared the winner with 64% of the vote. He didn’t enable any worldwide observers to observe the ballot, and the opposition rejected the end result as fraudulent.
The army lastly stepped in, saying the election “didn’t meet the circumstances for a clear, credible and inclusive poll a lot hoped for by the folks of Gabon”
Many Gabonese have welcomed the coup, nevertheless it does elevate fears about the way forward for democracy in lots of nations in West and Central Africa.
Paul Melly is a consulting fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham Home in London.