DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — It had become a familiar scene in West Africa. A group of soldiers appeared on state television in Benin on Sunday to claim they had seized power. A few hours later, the president announced the coup had been foiled.
Just two weeks earlier, soldiers seized power in another West African country, Guinea-Bissau, after a closely contested presidential election.
Since 2020, nine countries in Africa have experienced coups. Here is what to know about why some nations on the continent are prone to military takeovers.
The recent coups in Africa reflect deepening socioeconomic grievances, weakened institutions and frustrations with civilian governments’ handling of security crises, according to Beverly Ochieng, an analyst with the Control Risks Group consulting firm.
“In many West African countries, where militaries remain deeply involved in daily politics, crises such as insurgencies and sustained socioeconomic grievances often push soldiers to step in when they believe civilian leaders are failing to respond effectively,” Ochieng said.
It’s not just in West Africa. In October, military leaders took power on the southern African island of Madagascar following youth-led protests demanding President Andry Rajoelina’s resignation. He later fled the country while the parliament voted for his impeachment.
In 2023, soldiers in the oil-rich central African country of Gabon toppled longtime President Ali Bongo shortly after he was declared the election winner. Coup leader Brice Oligui Nguema, a cousin of Bongo, took power and was announced the winner of a presidential election in April.
In Chad, following his father’s death in April 2021, army general Mahamat Idris Deby seized power, extending his family’s three-decade rule of the central African nation.
In September 2021, a group of soldiers in Guinea led by Mamady Doumbouya removed President Alpha Conde, who had changed the constitution to stand for a third term. Doumbouya is running in the presidential election in December, after a referendum this year allowed junta members to participate.
In Sudan, the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, staged a coup in October 2021, deposing Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled for 26 years.
Military leaders have also taken power by force in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023. The three countries in the arid Sahel region have been plagued by extremist attacks, while pledging to provide more security to citizens.
With the exception of Sudan, a former British colony, and Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese one, the coups in Africa in recent years have taken place in former French colonies.
Bakary Sambe, who heads the Senegal-based Timbuktu Institute, said the prevalence of coups in Francophone Africa largely can be explained by countries’ political systems — heavily influenced by France, with strong presidential powers — and economic dependence on France after independence.
“Add to this weak governance marked by corruption and the inability to address jihadist threats in the Sahel, and you have fertile ground for militaries positioning themselves as ‘saviors’,” Sambe said.
“Post-colonial Anglophone institutions, on the other hand, influenced by a more decentralized British model, have fostered more stable democratic transitions, with diversified economies and less external monetary control,” he added.
Ochieng said the role of the military in politics also differs between many former French colonies and former British ones.
“In many Anglophone African countries, the military, executive and judiciary are more clearly separated, and that separation of powers means that they coexist rather than overlapping in ways that blur authority or create confusion about who is in charge,” she said.
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