The Expanding Sahel Coup Belt

Since 2020, the Sahel region has emerged as the global epicenter of coups d’état and terrorism. This article surveys why coups in recent years have been concentrated in a narrow belt running from Guinea-Bissau on West Africa’s Atlantic coast all the way to Sudan on the continent’s Red Sea coast. Though there is limited evidence of direct coordination or foreign sponsorship, shared causes of Africa’s latest coup wave include “traps” of repeated coup attempts, poverty, worsening terrorism, crises of democratic governance, and an international environment that has grown more favorable to post-coup regimes. Democratic renewal and domestic tranquility remain elusive within the Sahel coup belt, which threatens to keep expanding.