The wave of coups and military takeovers that has swept through West Africa over the last 24 months calls into question the ability of both the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)...
ECOWAS
Foreign troop withdrawal from Mali – let history not repeat itself
France and its partners’ decision to withdraw their troops from Mali after nearly 10 years of fighting a jihadist insurgency echoes the recent US withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, this situation may present an...
Instability and coups in West Africa: a call for collective action
In recent years, West Africa has seen a spate of coups and attempted coups. Efforts by governance actors in the region to prevent these incidents have been largely ineffective. Coups are not the only security threat...
Coups and chaos: reckoning with instability in West Africa
On 1 February 2022, just two weeks after the military ended the rule of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré’s administration in Burkina Faso, an attempted coup took place in Guinea-Bissau. Videos on social media...
To coup or not to coup – Making sense of the changing nature of coups
Since the 5 September 2021 coup d’état in Guinea, there has been a sharp interest in coup d’états in general and on the African continent in particular, renewed in part by an array of political and media commentators....
Guinea’s coup: why it happened and where to from here?
On 5 September 2021, after gunfire in the streets of Guinea’s capital city Conakry, members of the Guinean Special Forces (GSF) arrested President Alpha Condé and seized power in a coup d'état. Lieutenant-Colonel...
