A strong desire for change – even if it comes wearing combat fatigues – is feeding Africa’s series of putsches
Soldiers have also seized power in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Sudan in the past two years. Now other leaders of Gabon’s neighbouring states will feel threatened – notably Denis Sassou Nguesso in Congo-Brazzaville – and with some justification.
Few doubt Gabon needed a shake-up. The president inherited power from his father, who ruled from 1967 until his death in 2009. Gabon, a member of the Opec oil cartel, with a production of 181,000 barrels of crude a day, should be relatively properous. Yet the quality of life of the vast proportion of its 2 million inhabitants speaks volumes about the decades of mismanagement, clientelism, corruption and blatant political rigging that the Bongo dynasty brought.
have yet to help restore Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected president of Niger ousted in July, and sanctions are not having much effect either. Military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso appear entrenched. And in Sudan, the biggest threat to the military factionsIn the case of Gabon, the military can count on popular support and that of the opposition. A recent United Nations development programme survey of thousands of people living in countries where coups had recently occurred found.
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