Commentary: How can Africa shake its coup contagion?

In a refreshing twist on what had been starting to look like a depressing U-turn to the days when coup d’etats were all too present in postcolonial Africa, 80 political parties and nongovernmental organizations in Mali joined forces this week to demand new elections after nearly four years of rule by a military junta.

Still, the “coup contagion” lurks on Africa’s political horizon, as a recent foiled attempt in South Sudan about a “coup contagion” on the continent, one that has seen , 106 of them successful. The tragedy of the most recent spate of coups is that, as recently as 2018, their occurrence had hit an all-time low.