PUTSCH IN GABON UNDERSTAND

THIS SERIES OF PUTSCHS IN AFRICA

According to their statement, the organization of the elections did not meet “the conditions for a transparent, credible and inclusive vote”. The putschists even speak of “truncated results”. They call on the populations for calm and serenity. Other measures announced: the dissolution of institutions, the closure of borders.

The military “coup” in Gabon against the just re-elected president, Ali Bongo, on Wednesday, brings back a worrying trend in Africa observed in recent years. West Africa is experiencing a veritable epidemic of putsches. Niger last month, Mali opened the ball in 2020 followed by Guinea in 2021 and Burkina Faso twice in 2022. Four elected presidents (Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Alpha Condé, Roch Kaboré and Mohamed Bazoum) were dismissed by men in uniform. On a regional scale, an obvious link exists with the military and popular overthrows that occurred in five French-speaking African countries.

 The failure of postcolonial states or pseudo-democracies

The common thread that unites them is the manifest failure of postcolonial states, modeled under a marked influence of France, and having gone through two distinct historical phases: one authoritarian and another which wanted to be democratic, or more precisely, pseudo-democratic.

When the former French colonies gained independence in 1960, General de Gaulle and his "Mister Africa", Jacques Foccart, established regimes intended to maintain French influence behind the facade of sovereignty

Gabon is a caricature of this situation: Jacques Foccart personally chose Omar Bongo, the patriarch, when the first Gabonese president, Léon Mba, learned that he was suffering from cancer in 1965. At the age of 30 years, Bongo was the president's chief of staff: dubbed by Foccart, he led Gabon until his death in 2009, when his son succeeded him and retained undivided power until the recent coup . State.

France orchestrated the tricks of the authoritarian model. Subsequently, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, François Mitterrand conditioned French assistance on the democratization of regimes, but this subterfuge above all allowed yesterday's autocrats to prolong their reign. Figures such as the Bongo father and son, or Paul Biya, the irremovable president of Cameroon, illustrate these pseudo democracies. Democracies without alternation, without checks and balances, without curbs on corruption.

In the Sahel, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and now in Gabon the divorce from France or more broadly from Western supremacy. is well and truly consumed, with many influential African countries.

Internal conflicts...and populations in economic suffering

But these ongoing changes in this French-speaking part of Africa most of the time result from internal conflicts in these very nascent democracies, when they are not purely and simply confiscated at the same time as national resources by corrupt family clans. Throughout the region, there is a real discredit of the political class, a discredit largely driven by the tradition of profiteering and corruption between the influential political, commercial and military classes at the head of these states.

The case of Gabon and the Bongo dynasty is revealing. The way in which father Omar reigned for 42 years until his death in 2009, followed by the takeover of power by his son Ali with the support of France, shows to what extent the condemnations of Paris are of variable geometry. Each of Ali Bongo's elections was marred by massive fraud and bloody repression (in 2009 and 2016). Moreover, during the last elections, the Bongo government put the country under lockdown from August 26: internet and telephone communications were cut, borders closed, and a curfew imposed. The Gabonese were thus isolated and at the mercy of the government.

Another major axis of the Sahelian situation is the jihadist insurgency

In Niger, according to General Abdourahamane Tiani, quoted in the Nigerian mediation press release, the military overthrew President Bazoum "because of an imminent threat which would have affected not only the Republic of Niger, but also Nigeria". The new strongman of Niger had justified the coup d'état by "the security deterioration" in the country, undermined by the violence of jihadist groups like neighboring Mali and Burkina, also led by soldiers and who displayed their solidarity with Niamey.

Whether the origin of these movements comes from outside, precisely from “Wahhabi” Islam coming from the Persian Gulf or whether these insurgencies are linked to local demands, the various jihadist movements are strengthening themselves largely on economic bases. but also by the exploitation of local conflicts and the loss of confidence in the central State. Recruitment on the basis of theological indoctrination remains measured.

Then, the establishment of “proto-States” or “parallel governances” mainly in rural areas allows these movements to survive and establish themselves over the long term. They impose control on markets and local chiefdoms, collect taxes, and open Koranic schools. This domination of the populations is paradoxical, because they create an ambient terror while restoring part of the social services. :

“Clearance”

Each putsch of recent months has its specificities, from Mali to Niger, via Burkina and today Gabon. But there is one constant: the “dégagisme” at work which benefits the military and international powers and which makes France a collateral victim of these upheavals.

Gabonese local and national military forces then decided that it was time to take charge of their destiny and help shape the future of the country. For these new generations suffering economically, the military offers itself as saviors.

What the Gabonese people are celebrating in the streets is not the arrival of the army to power, but rather the end of a political regime which impoverished them. A country the size of Britain, with a small population, Gabon is an oil producer. But natural wealth benefits a small elite. More than 40% of residents live below the poverty line. Expectations are therefore high.

Under these conditions, observed the thinker of Cameroonian origin Achille Mbembe in Le Monde , "coups d'état appear to be the only way to bring about change, to ensure a form of alternation at the top of the State, and to accelerate the generational transition".