Africa: A history of coups
2008-08-12 09:36
Paris - The coup which overthrew Mauritania's elected government was the latest in a long series to affect the continent.
Key examples from the past decade, excluding takeovers due to wars, and stolen elections:
April 1999: The president of the west African state of Niger, who himself came to power in a coup, is killed by his guards. Democratic rule is restored eight months later.
- The elected leader of the Comoros, an Indian Ocean island state which has known around 40 coup attempts since independence in 1975, is overthrown by the military.
May 1999: After a year of civil war in Guinea-Bissau, president Joao Bernardo Vieira is ousted by the military. Elections are held the next year.
December 1999: Another west African state, Ivory Coast, experiences its first-ever coup. The military regime set up by General Robert Guei is ousted by a popular uprising a year later.
September 2002: Ivory Coast is shaken again when soldiers based mainly in the north rebel against the government. Although the latter is not overthrown, the country sinks into chronic instability which continues to this day.
March 2003: After several years of instability and abortive coup attempts in the Central African Republic, General Francois Bozize seizes power.
July 2003: The president of Sao Tome and Principe, a tiny island state off the coast of west Africa, is overthrown while out of the country. He is reinstated a month later after international mediation.
September 2003: The elected leader of Guinea-Bissau is ousted by the military, which vows to hold new elections. These take place in 2005.
March 2004: The president of Equatorial Guinea, a newly oil-rich west African state, announces that a coup plot against him has been foiled. The plotters included a group of western mercenaries.
August 2005: The president of Mauritania is overthrown in a bloodless coup while out of the country. The new regime promises elections, which take place successfully in March 2007.
August 6 2008: New coup in Mauritania.
- SAPA