Guinea: Latest in a line of African coups

As the military grab power in Guinea — the third African government to be toppled this year — we look back on a decade of coups across the continent.

– Guinea –

Elite troops led by Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya take over the impoverished West African state on Sunday, arresting 83-year-old President Alpha Conde.

The veteran became Guinea’s first democratically-elected president in 2010 after spending years in jails at the hands of previous juntas. 

But last year he sparked fury by changing the constitution so he could run for a third term.

– Mali –

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is overthrown in August 2020 after several months of street protests in the troubled West African nation which is threatened by an Islamic insurgency.

Then in May the military takes over yet again after the civilian leaders of an interim government remove soldiers from some key posts.

Army strongman Colonel Assimi Goita survives an assassination attempt on July 20 at a Bamako mosque.

Under international pressure, the colonel vows to hold free elections by February.

– Sudan –

Dictator Omar al-Bashir’s 30 years in power are terminated by the army in April 2019 after a four-month street revolt sparked by the price of bread tripling.

More than 250 people die in the protests. A transition council of military and civil society leaders is formed in August 2019 and a civilian prime minister appointed the following month.

– Zimbabwe –

Robert Mugabe, who had led the country with an iron fist for the 37 years since independence, falls in 2017. 

He is ousted by the military and members of his own ZANU-PF party, who replace him with former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe dies in Singapore two years later aged 95.

– Burkina Faso –

Less than a year after the fall of president Blaise Compaore after a popular revolt, Michel Kafando is overthrown as president in a coup led by his own presidential guard in 2015. 

Less than a week later Kafando is back in power after the coup leaders fail to gather support, until elections are held in November.

– Egypt –

The military ousts Egypt’s first democratically-elected leader, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, in 2013 after huge demonstrations against his one year in charge.

The general who led the bloody putsch, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, becomes president and begins a brutal crackdown on dissent that is still going on.

– Guinea Bissau – 

Troops led by General Antonio Indjai oust interim president Raimundo Pereira and former prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior between two rounds of a presidential poll in 2012.

It is the fourth coup since independence from Portugal in 1974.