Africa has seen its fair share of violence, corruption, and war since the full decolonization of the continent. Through civil war, coup attempts, being exploited for its rich resources or exploiting those resources themselves, the continent continues to fall down the path of violence, oppression, and corruption. It did feel like everything was getting better. According to the BBC, in 1960-69, there were 26 successful coup attempts and 14 unsuccessful attempts. Contrasting that to 2010-19, the coup attempts were at 7 successful and 8 unsuccessful. While the evidence was suggesting a fast decline for the next decade, we are now witnessing increased violence.
In the past three years, we have observed 8 successful coups in Africa and 5 unsuccessful, just 2 shy of the previous decade. This rapid increase in coups shows that problems are growing in some states in Africa. Poverty, oppression, corruption, violence, inflation are all some of the key factors in the growing pains of the people.
So how does the international community respond to this? So far all we have done is pull out embassies, funding and cut all ties with these nations. This approach is clearly flawed, but at the same time, direct intervention may not be the answer either. We have been barely successful in creating a ceasefire in the Sudanese civil war, thanks to Saudi Arabia and the United States. Our lack of success shows it’s time for a new approach.
One of these approaches is investment. With country’s pulling out embassies, African countries and the people may seem stranded and abandoned. Using investment as a tool to create stabilized governments is the tool Africans are counting on. Now you are probably questioning that this has been done before. You are right, the Portuguese promised roads and trains, the Chinese introduced the Belt and Road initiative. The problem was the Portuguese and other European countries did not maintain their infrastructure, and the Chinese made it cheaply.
The United States and allies need to come in with promises of strong western infrastructure. Investing in roads, telecommunication, financial systems, railways and housing. This infrastructure is crucial in establishing governments and communities. The west has proven we can build the best infrastructure domestically and abroad. This will directly affect (for the better) the political and educational institutions within each country, strengthening them.
Focusing more on African leadership, strengthening the African Union can be a more direct way at preventing coups. The African Union is unique in the sense that it has a peacekeeping force as a regional block. The African Union needs to use this force in all coup attempts to keep the peace. Using the force for a time frame and sending diplomats to hold the necessary elections, and also investigate the coup attempt. The African Union has the ability to keep the peace, investigate and use its power to prevent more damage from occurring.
Although the African Union is unique with its peacekeeping force, it can take a part of the playbook from the European Union and the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations with its creation of policy. Creating strong African Union policy in certain areas like immigration, technology, and trade can help establish stronger governments and influence policy within those governments.
These goals are hard to achieve. Filled with complexities and complex issues, some may look at deterring coups and a prosperous Africa as a shot in the dark. Although that may be true, that shot is worth it. A prosperous Africa is a prosperous world. The international community must lend a hand in order to achieve this goal.
Author: Joshua Cheatham
