Revolutionary Overthrow of Constitutional Orders in Africa

Chapter 10. Countries where there has been one coup (so far)

129 Chapter 10 Countries where there has been one coup (so far) Cape Verde The Cape Verde Islands achieved independence from Portugal in July 1975. The PAIGC was the only political organization in both Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. In 1980 there was a coup d’état in Guinea Bissau. The coup ended the loose federation of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Plans for unification of the two former Portuguese territories were abandoned. The Cape Verde branch of the PAIGC was renamed PAIGV and a new constitution was adopted for the country. Another new constitution in 1991 introduced multiparty democracy. In the 1991 election, Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro challenged and defeated Aristides Maria Pereira in power since 1975. Monteiro was re-elected without opposition in 1996. In 2001 Pedro Pires became the new President, served two 5-year terms and on 21 August 2011 Carlos Fonseca was elected President in a presidential runoff election. Côte d’Ivoire When Houphouët-Boigny died in 1995, Konan Bédié became President. In late 1999, a group of disgruntled officers staged a military coup and put General Robert Guéï in power. A presidential election was held in October 2000. Guéï’s attempt to rig the election led to a public uprising in which many people lost their lives. Guéï was replaced by Laurent Gbagbo, the election’s likely winner. In September 2002 there was an armed uprising against Gbagbo. The rebel forces took control of the north of the country and threatened to move on Abidjan. France deployed troops and the rebel advance was halted. But the country was effectively divided into two, the north under rebel control and the south under government control. The government blamed the armed insurgency on an alleged 130 coup attempt by former President Guéï and in which he was killed in the fighting that ensued between rebel and government forces. In 2003, government and rebel leaders signed accords creating a ‘government of national unity’. But the rebel forces refused to disarm. UN peacekeepers were deployed along a zone separating rebel-held north and government-held south. In 2006 there was an attempted coup against Laurent Gbagbo. In March 2007, a peace deal was signed between the government and the rebels (known as New Forces), whose leader Guillaume Soro, became Prime Minister. Presidential elections were held in 2010, pitting two main candidates, Gbagbo and Alassana Ouattarra. UN and other International election observers pronounced the elections as free and fair. The UN declared Ouattarra the winner. But Gbagbo refused to concede defeat and had himself sworn in as President. Ouattarra also had himself sworn in. Ivory Coast had the undignified spectacle of finding itself with two rival presidents. Months of efforts by the UN, the AU and third states to get Gbagbo to give up his claim to the presidency failed. The stage was then set for a civil war which eventually broke out in early 2011. Forces supporting Gbagbo consisted of the Ivorian military and those supporting Ouattarra consisted of the rebel New Forces backed by French and UN intervention forces. The capture of Gbagbo who had taken refuge in the bunker under the Presidential House brought the civil war to an end. Egypt In 1952, Egypt set the example for the coups that would become a common occurrence all over Africa. In that year Brigadier Muhammad Neguib and Colonel Abdul Nasser deposed King Farouk in a military coup. Nasser became the new Egyptian leader. Upon Nasser’s death, Anwar Sadat, another soldier took over. When Sadat was assassinated by his own soldiers, Mubarak became next President and remained in power until about mid-2011 when he was chased from power by a popular uprising that lasted months in what became known as the ‘Arab Spring Democratic Awakening’. During the same 131 period popular uprisings also sprung up in Tunisia and Libya and saw the end of the regimes in those countries. Equatorial Guinea In 1968, Spain granted Equatorial Guinea independence with Francisco Macias Nguema as its President. Nguema ruled with an iron fist. In December 1975 there was apparently an attempted coup against him. The coup failed. On Christmas day he had the alleged 150 coup plotters executed in a stadium, while a band played music. In 1979 Nguema’s dictatorship was brought to an end following a military coup by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, his nephew, who then ushered in his own despotic rule...