According to Foreign Policy, coups are back on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some regional powers — Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Sudan — are attempting to regain control of their respective countries through violence, usually supported by foreign powers.
And those coups have prompted a new round of interventions by international powers such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
The foreign intervention in Ivory Coast (Ivory Coast), which occurred on October 31, 2017, resulted in the ouster of French president Laurent Gbagbo and now France is calling on the international community to help defend their country as it grapples with violence perpetrated by forces loyal to his opponent, Alassane Ouattara. They have begun providing air support and equipping the UN peacekeepers.
In late 2017, according to the US State Department, Nigeria and Chad began a military collaboration with each other and the US to conduct joint raids on Islamic State (IS) forces.
And if all these coups don’t sound bad enough for seasoned observers of the region, they are pushing African actors to go beyond violence and reinstate or change their democratically elected leaders. Already, Somalia has replaced a democratically elected government with one of its military leaders, and Nigeria is reportedly “closely examining the military option” to deal with the leader of its Boko Haram insurgency.