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A Sixth Coup in Africa? The West Needs to Up Its Game.

A Sixth Coup in Africa? The West Needs to Up Its Game.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

By: Joseph Sany, Ph.D.

The government of Guinea-Bissau says it survived an attempted coup d’état yesterday, just days after Burkina Faso suffered the fifth coup in nine months around the greater Sahel. These upheavals cement this African region as the most pronounced center of a global crisis: Poor and authoritarian governance is breeding extremism and transnational criminality, igniting violence and undermining efforts to build democracies. Following last year’s military power grabs in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan, the new crises highlight widening risks to security — for the 135 million people of the Sahel region, and ultimately for Europe and the United States. They also point to changes needed in U.S. and international policies.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance

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