Why Is Africa's Military Overthrowing Democracy?

Niger coup leaders

Coups in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel, are so common that a specific name has emerged to represent the region’s instability. Niger’s leader, Mohamed Bazoum, was apprehended by his presidential security on July 26, and the country’s borders were blocked. According to a presidential office statement, the guards did not receive help from other military personnel, but the next day, the leadership of the Armed Forces of Niger took control of the insurgents.

On July 28, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the commander of the Presidential Guard, issued the first video message in which he identified himself as the head of the National Council for the Defense of the Motherland, an association of the military that carried out the coup and urged Niger’s partners to refrain from interfering in the country’s affairs. He further described the rebels’ acts as a war against public-fund misappropriation, impunity, corruption in all its manifestations, and nepotism.

The challenges poor people face in democratic West African countries are never addressed. Democracy is looting Africa. Even though this prevalent sort of corruption affects the public, politicians just do not care. Niger is the world’s seventh largest importer of uranium and the primary source of this raw material for the needs of the energy sector not only in France, but also throughout the European Union, but the situation is complicated by the EU countries’ attempts to refuse uranium from Russia.

Following the coup, Niger’s neighbors, members of the sub-regional organization Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), imposed sanctions against the junta, suspending all transactions with the country and freezing its assets in the central and commercial banks of the association’s member countries, as well as issuing an ultimatum to the Niger junta: if they do not restore the ousted president to power within the next week, they will face full force of the law.

Read further: https://www.modernghana.com/news/1249931/why-is-africas-military-overthrowing-democracy.html