The leaders of several African countries, after a series of coups in the countries of the continent, have decided to change the top composition of the security forces in order to prevent such events, Report informs referring to The Wall Street Journal.
Security officials and diplomats say many of Africa’s longtime leaders are revamping their military command structures to prevent the upheavals from spreading. Hours after Gabon’s presidential guard toppled President Ali Bongo, Cameroon’s 90-year-old President Paul Biya appointed several security advisers to his Defense Ministry. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame retired a dozen generals and more than 600 other senior officers.
In Guinea-Bissau, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló appointed two new security chiefs, while in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni retired his longest-serving police chief, Gen. Kale Kayihura, along with 11 other generals.
It might not be enough. Political activists who have suffered years of repression expect the wave of coups to continue.
American military officials have described their frustration over the involvement of US-trained troops in a number of the uprisings. But now at risk are leaders in countries including Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and the Central African Republic, according to Oxford Economics Africa’s political economic risk model.
After years of poor governance, problematic elections and widespread corruption, elites in many Western-backed countries have grown wealthier while millions of poorer people are left behind, deepening a pool of resentment. Some 440 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in poverty, an increase of 30 million people since 2015, according to charity group Compassion International.
Low literacy rates are further dampening growth, adding to the instability, analysts say. More than half of the adult population in nearly a dozen fragile African countries are unable to read and write.
Pieter Scribante, a specialist in the region who tracks political risk at Oxford Economics, says that many of the recent coups were designed to ward off any larger upheaval that could threaten the privileged status of the armed forces as economic pressures and public discontent builds. He described the putsches as “self-preserving moves to keep the overall system in place,” and predicted that last month’s coup in Gabon won’t be the last.
“The threat of further coup-contagion looms in the background,” he said. “Our model sees coups and governance risks as being elevated over the next 18 months.”