Vox Sentences - What’s behind Africa’s recent coups

Monday, September 11, 2023:

Hi, everyone!

I’m Rachel DuRose, a fellow with Vox’s Future Perfect section. As Izzie Ramirez told you, I’ll be running Sentences for the next few weeks. 

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And now that I’ve been properly introduced, here’s what to keep your eye on today: 

Up first: Coups across Africa, explained 

In other news: The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, deadly earthquakes strike Morocco, and Kutcher and Kunis drop an apology video

What’s behind Africa’s recent coups

Desirey Minkoh/Afrikimages Agency/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A recent military coup in the Central African country of Gabon is the latest in a series of armed government takeovers across the continent. While there have been a lot of coups in Africa lately, they’re not all related, and they’re not all the same. But they are part of a more global turn away from democracy.

The lowdown: Gabon’s August coup came just after a July rebellion in Niger, and 2022 revolts in Burkina Faso and Mali. 

• Gabon’s revolution doesn’t fit the pattern. Unlike in other African countries where coups occurred, Gabon has no serious security threats, and rather than overthrowing the previously corrupt system, Gabon’s coup leaders merely took it over.

• Gabon’s coup is actually more similar to a 2017 takeover in Zimbabwe. In both cases, instituting true democratic reforms and holding free and fair elections would harm the interests of the ruling parties.

• Coups can happen anywhere. While many antidemocratic movements are concentrated across Africa and Latin America, almost anywhere (even a place with supposedly strong democratic institutions) can experience a coup attempt. Just think about the US on January 6, 2021. 

The stakes: Coups tend to build on themselves, and the wave of coups across Africa this year and last was actually a sign that more could come. Any attempt to overthrow a government, even if unsuccessful, shows that it is possible to try.

This chain reaction is part of a broader turn away from democracy, writes world and weekend reporter Ellen Ioanes. Undemocratic transitions of powers like these erode civil institutions and inflame international tensions. 

“When things like military coups happen, it’s easy to brush it off as ‘just what happens there,’” Ellen told me. “But our government and global institutions play a role in these political phenomena, as they have for centuries.” 

Read Ellen’s explainer here.

Why does the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 feel different?

Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. The attacks, perpetrated by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, led to America’s decades-long “war against terrorism.” Here’s how this year’s anniversary is different from those past:

• For the first time, the sitting US president will not commemorate the 9/11 attacks at one of the three memorial sites. On his return from the G20 summit in India, President Joe Biden will stop in Anchorage, Alaska, to speak with first responders, rather than visiting New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, or Arlington, Virginia. [Spectrum News NY1]

• The number of first responders killed by 9/11-related illnesses now almost equals the number of firefighters who died during the terror attacks. In the years since the attacks, first responders exposed to the toxic pollutants at Ground Zero have died of related cancers and illnesses. [CNN]

• Many of the newest generation of American troops — who joined after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan — weren’t even born when the 9/11 attacks occurred. “For many Americans, 9/11 is now simply a date to mark, much like December 7th with the Pearl Harbor attacks.” [NPR]

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• A Friday night earthquake and subsequent aftershocks kill over 2,400 in Morocco. A 6.8-magnitude quake shook the nearly one million-person city of Marrakech, Morocco late last week, and caused damage that could take years to repair. [ABC News]
  
  

• Royal Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales resigns amidst an investigation into nonconsensual kiss. After winning the Women’s World Cup, Rubiales allegedly forcibly kissed Spanish soccer player Jenni Hermoso, who filed a criminal complaint against him. [ESPN] 
  
  

• American tennis player Coco Gauff won the women’s US Open. The 19-year-old tennis star is the first American teenager to win the title since Serena Williams. [The Ringer]
  
  

• Married actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologized for writing letters of support for Danny Masterson. That ’70s Show actor Masterson was sentenced to 30 years for raping two women. In the video, his former co-stars Kutcher and Kunis say they “support victims.” [Variety]

The meat industry’s deceptive “climate-friendly” label 

The world scored abysmally on its first climate change report card 

The stakes of the upcoming antitrust trial against Google

The fatal shooting of Ta’Kiya Young renews calls for police reform

Today’s crossword

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