[ad_1]
What Emmanuel Macron calls an “epidemic” of coups in Francophone Africa is spreading. Not because the Arab Spring have Paris and different Western capitals appeared so overtaken by occasions, as a string of supposedly secure strongman regimes fall by the hands of formidable army officers, typically cheered on by a brand new technology disillusioned by unkept democratic guarantees. There isn’t any simple repair, however a brand new strategy is overdue.
The importance of the most recent domino to fall — President Ali Bongo in Gabon — is the truth that instability is spreading past the Sahel area, the place a dropping French-backed combat towards jihadis has angered locals, emboldened the army to topple regimes in international locations like Mali and Niger and given inroads to Russia’s Wagner Group. The shortcoming of the West or African regional blocs to reverse these energy seizures most likely fueled the urge to oust Bongo — whose household dominated Gabon for 55 years and for a very long time was a key associate for Paris’ pursuits in Africa, although had extra not too long ago pivoted to the Anglosphere.
What makes Gabon a very awkward growth for France and its European allies, who met on Thursday to look at responses to the July 30 coup in Niger (which noticed the unseating of President Mohammed Bazoum), together with doable sanctions, is that some dominos are asking to be pushed.
[ad_2]
Source link
