2021 Was The Year For Military Coups In Africa

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya addressing Guineans after the September 5 coup [File: Screengrab] 

Al Jazeera: 2021, the year military coups returned to the stage in Africa  

This year, there were four successful military takeovers across the continent – in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan – up from one in 2020. 

Surrounded by soldiers and with Guinea’s flag draped around his shoulders, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya appeared on state television hours after leading a coup in September. “Guinea is beautiful,” he told his co-patriots, using a crude analogy to describe what would be his vision for the future of his country. 

“We no longer need to rape her. We need to make love to her, that’s all.” 

Doumbouya’s elite Special Forces had earlier stormed the presidential palace and detained Alpha Conde, the country’s first democratically elected president whose election victory in 2010 was once seen as a new beginning after decades of authoritarian rule. 

But the 83-year-old’s time at the helm of the West African country ended dramatically, with a video showing him sitting on a dusty sofa, barefoot with his printed shirt buttons open and surrounded by heavily armed guards.  

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WNU Editor: Here is a good summary of the coups that occurred in Africa in 2021 .... Sudan coup: Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa? (BBC). 

Update: External actors are not helping the situation .... Africa’s Coups and the Role of External Actors (Africa Center).