Coups surge in Africa, but military rulers have poor record

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Open this photo in gallery: This video grab taken from a video obtained by AFPTV from Gabon 24 on Sept. 7 shows Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi (second from the left), Transitional government spokesperson, reading a statement on television.-/AFP/Getty Images Euphoric crowds in the streets of Gabon and Niger have been celebrating military coups in recent weeks. The same scenes of postcoup jubilation erupted in Burkina Faso last year, and in Mali the year before. The takeover trend, often called “coup contagion,” has swept across big swathes of the continent since 2020, hailed by many ordinary Africans who have grown frustrated...