{"id":40860,"date":"2025-10-16T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=40860"},"modified":"2025-10-16T21:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:34:14","slug":"madagascars-military-power-grab-shows-africas-coup-problem-isnt-restricted-to-the-sahel-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/madagascars-military-power-grab-shows-africas-coup-problem-isnt-restricted-to-the-sahel-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Madagascar\u2019s military power grab shows Africa\u2019s coup problem isn\u2019t restricted to the Sahel region"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Joseph Chin<\/a>, Carnegie Mellon University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who rise to power through a coup often fall by the same means<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is one of the takeaways from events in Madagascar, where on Oct. 14, 2025, the military seized power<\/a> after weeks of protests<\/a> largely driven by Gen Z. Ironically, it was the same elite military unit that helped bring Andry Rajoelina<\/a>, former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, to power in a March 2009<\/a> coup that now supported anti-government protesters<\/a> and ultimately forced the president to flee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lead a research team that compiles the Colpus Dataset<\/a> of coup types and characteristics and have written on the history of coups d\u2019\u00e9tat<\/a> from 1946 through 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our data suggests that even as coups have declined globally overall, coup risk<\/a> remains comparatively high in Africa. Since 2020, the continent has now seen 10 successful coups across eight countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the military takeover in Madagascar marks only the second coup in that period to take place outside of the Sahel region<\/a>, stretching from the Atlantic to the Horn of Africa \u2013 a signal that Africa\u2019s coup problem is becoming a continental one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n