Context: Recently, military officers in Gabon say they have taken power and put the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, under house arrest.

About Gabon

• Location: It’s an oil-rich country on the west coast of Central Africa, with a small population of just 2.4 million.
• Gabon is a member of the Opec oil cartel, with a production of 181,000 barrels of crude a day, making it the eighth-largest producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Political Stability: Gabon till date has not been afflicted by jihadi violence and had been seen as relatively stable. 
• Unemployment: According to World Bank, nearly 40% of Gabonese aged 15-24 were out of work in 2020.
• About Ali Bongo: He was declared the winner of Saturday’s disputed elections and has been president since 2009. 
  • Before that, his father was in power for 41 years.

Why so many coups?

• Gabon becomes the latest in Africa to suffer an attempted coup.
• If successful, the coup would be the eighth in west and central Africa since 2020. 
• The most recent one, in Niger, was in July, while the military has also seized power in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad.
• Coup threaten a reversal of the democratization process the continent has undergone in the past two decades.
• Reason for Rampant Coup: Corruption, mismanagement and poverty, 

News Source: BBC