Coup Belt

Although likely older,^[11][12] the term became popular in the 2020s after a string of coups in the early part of the decade, including in Mali in 2020 and 2021,^[13] Chad,^[6] Guinea,^[14] and Sudan^[15] in 2021, two in Burkina Faso in January and September 2022,^[16][17] and in Niger and Gabon in 2023.^[18][19] The region also saw attempted coups in Niger and Sudan in 2021, Guinea–Bissau and The Gambia in 2022, and Sudan, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso in 2023.

Since 1990, 21 of the 27 coups in sub-Saharan Africa have taken place in former French colonies. This has led some to question whether French influence in Africa has a destabilising impact.^[20]

The military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger cancelled military agreements that allowed French troops to operate on their territory, and in the case of Mali, removed French as an official language.^{[21][22][23][24]}

ECOWAS has tried to actively work on changing the label associated with the region, although unsuccessful. The regional bloc suspended Mali after its coup in 2021,^[25] and also suspended Guinea on 8 September 2021, shortly after a military coup took place in the country.^[26][27] The three members of the Alliance of Sahel States were suspended before ultimately withdrawing from ECOWAS in 2023.

Considering only the subregion of West Africa, the 2020 coup d'état in Mali occurred after a period of nearly six years, since the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising and the ousting of Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaoré, during which there was not a single undemocratic change of government in West Africa.^[28] For this subregion where many countries have a history of civil war and violent conflict, this was a period of remarkable stability during which ECOWAS even managed to find a peaceful resolution to the 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis.

The 2023 Gabonese coup d'état was somewhat different, as Gabon was ruled for 56 years by the Bongo family before the coup, is not near or part of the Sahel, and did not suffer from Islamist or separatist insurgencies. The Gabonese military coup occurred in the context of widespread protests over the conduct of the 2023 Gabonese general election. It led to the establishment of a presidential republic under a military junta.^[29]