Answers: West Africa's coups, minerals and more
Niger is the latest country in West Africa to come under military rule following a coup in the last week of July. Regional bloc ECOWAS has warned military intervention is an option if the civilian leadership is not restored to power. But other post-coup West African countries have warned they will treat any military intervention in Niger as a “declaration of war” against all of them.
The West African nations that have seen coups since 2020 are all former French colonies. Coup leaders have expressed anger against France and French troops have withdrawn from Mali and Burkina Faso.
The latest wave of violence has its roots in 2012-13 when Mali sought French military help to stop Al Qaeda-linked rebels from advancing on the capital. As hardline groups linked to Al Qaeda and ISIL established footholds in the borderlands of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, France launched Operation Barkhane and set up the G5 Sahel, a security alliance with five states in the region. But the failure to stamp out the rebels and the increasing pace of attacks fuelled anger against the French as well as civilian leaders. As France loses clout, Mali has turned to Russia’s Wagner Group for military support. But the violence has continued under military rule.
Answers
1) How did Niger’s uranium deposits bring it into the international spotlight in 2003? (Hint: false claim)
The U.S. falsely claimed that Iraq under Saddam Hussein attempted to buy uranium from Niger to fuel its alleged nuclear weapons programme. President George W. Bush claimed in his State of the Union address in January 2023 that “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa”. This was used as a major reason for justifying the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate the claims. He revealed that he had debunked the claims in an article published in the New York Times in July 2003 titled ‘What I Didn’t Find in Africa’. In a week, it was leaked that Wilson’s then-wife Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent. Then vice president Dick Cheney’s aide Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby was later convicted in connection with the leak.
2) This facility in Niger with a $110 million price tag has been described by Washington as the largest construction project of its kind in U.S. history. What?
The U.S. air base in Niger’s Agadez region on the southern edge of the Sahara, which is key to its drone operations in a volatile region where armed groups linked to ISIL and Al Qaeda have expanded activities.
Washington has so far refused to label the developments in Niger a coup, because that would mean cutting off most assistance under a law enacted in the 1980s. More here. The U.S. State Department in a report last year had called Niger “a linchpin for stability in the Sahel as well as a reliable counterterrorism partner”.
October 2023 update: The U.S. formally designated the military takeover in Niger a coup. More here, here, here and here. Most aid has been suspended but the military base will continue to operate.
March 2024 update: Niger’s military junta announced it was ending the military agreement that allowed the deployment of U.S. forces.
3) The recent cycle of military coups in West Africa began in this country in August 2020. In May 2021 a second coup took place. Which country?
4) This country’s civilian leader held a controversial referendum that allowed him to run for a third term despite mass protests. He was toppled in a coup in September 2021. The mineral-rich country is the second-largest global producer of bauxite (the main ore source of aluminium). It also has the world's largest reserves of bauxite. Which country?
Guinea. Toppled president Alpha Conde had become Guinea’s first freely elected president in 2010. But anger against him built up over the years, especially after he used a controversial referendum to run for a third term in 2020 (he argued the new constitution put the term clock back to zero). More here, here and here.
5) Which country saw two coups in 2022, one in January and another in September?
Burkina Faso. More here, here and here.
6) The hardline rebel group Ansar Dine, with ties to Al Qaeda, destroyed tombs and other UNESCO world heritage sites in which city in 2012?
Timbuktu, Mali. More here, here, here and here. Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi from the Ansar Dine later became the first to be convicted by the International Criminal Court for destroying cultural heritage. More here, here and here.
7) This West African country A staved off a coup attempt in February 2022. A has faced several coups and coup attempts since securing independence from Portugal in 1974. The country is known to be a major transit hub for drug smuggling from South America to Europe. The United Nations labelled it Africa’s first ‘narco-state’ in the 2000s. Name country A?
Guinea-Bissau. More on the failed coup attempt in 2022 here, here, here, here and here. More on the recent parliamentary elections here.
8) North of the country A in the previous question is a region known for one of Africa’s longest-running separatist movements. The region was a Portuguese colony until 1888 when it was added to a French colony which became country B. Country A was long accused of arming and harbouring the separatists by country B. Country B signed a peace deal with a separatist faction in August 2022. Name country B and its region with the separatist movement.
B is Senegal and its southern region with the separatist movement is Casamance. Guinea-Bissau is to the south of Casamance and was accused of arming and harbouring the separatists by Senegal. But Guinea-Bissau backed Senegal's military offensive against the rebels in 2021 and it played host to the signing of a peace deal in 2022 between the Senegalese government and a rebel faction. But the conflict is not yet over.
9) To complicate matters further, the rest of country B is geographically almost totally separated from its southern region known for separatist sentiment by country C. Name country C. ECOWAS sent troops to country C in January 2017 after its president refused to step down despite losing elections.
The Gambia is C.
Courtesy Google Maps. The Gambia is between two parts of Senegal. Casamance is the coastal region of Senegal south of Gambia and Guinea-Bissau is to the south of Casamance.
The Gambia under president Yahya Jammeh was also accused by Senegal of sheltering separatists from Casamance. It’s been a major exporter of timber from the West African rosewood tree to China though the species was nearly extinct in the country by 2012. The U.S.-based Environmental Investigation Agency says most of the timber is smuggled into The Gambia from Casamance by the separatists.
Yahya Jammeh stepped down in 2007 after losing elections to Adama Barrow but only after the deployment of troops from several West African nations, including Senegal. More here and here. Under Adama Barrow, The Gambia’s ties with Senegal have improved considerably but it has struggled to contain rosewood smuggling. More here and here.
Earlier in 1981, Senegal sent troops to The Gambia to thwart a coup at the request of the deposed leader. The two countries formed a confederation known as Senegambia in 1982 to bring about commercial unity and geographical contiguity. The confederation collapsed in 1989. A bridge across the Gambia river, which was considered a priority of the confederation, was finally completed in 2019. The Senegambia bridge links the two halves of The Gambia, as well as dramatically cuts travel time from northern Senegal to Casamance, south of The Gambia.
10) Country D’s constitution envisaged unity with country A when it became independent from Portugal in 1975. Its president announced the next year that a referendum would be held on whether to merge the two countries, both former Portuguese colonies. But country A had its first coup in 1980 and country D’s leadership responded by dropping merger plans. Unlike country A, country D has a post-independence history of peaceful political transitions. Name country D.
D is Cape Verde and A Guinea-Bissau. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) led by Amilcar Cabral spearheaded the independence movement in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Both countries became one-party states under PAIGC control after independence but merger plans were dropped after Guinea-Bissau’s coup in 1980. Cape Verde transitioned to multiparty elections in 1991.
11) This former French colony in Africa has been controlled by a single family from 1967. Gnassingbé Eyadéma was president from 1967 until his death in 2005. His son, Faure Gnassingbé has been the president since then. Which country?
Togo.
12) In 2011 French troops along with United Nations peacekeeping forces helped oust the president of a West African country, who tried to stay on in power despite losing elections. The former leader was later acquitted of war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court. Which country?
Ivory Coast. The ousted former leader is Laurent Gbagbo who returned to his country in 2021 after being cleared by the ICC. Alassane Ouattara, who defeated Gbagbo to become president successfully ran for a third term in 2020, arguing that the two-term limit set in a 2016 constitution does not apply to his first two terms.
13) Jerry Rawlings seized power twice in military coups, presided over a transition to multi-party democracy, was elected twice as president and handed over power at the end of his second term in 2001. Which country?
Ghana. More on Jerry Rawlings here, here, here, here, here and here.
14) Opposition parties were effectively shut out of the parliamentary vote in 2019 in this country after election rules were tightened. Most of the president’s key opponents have been jailed or forced into exile. The president, a businessman-turned-politician is known as the ‘king of cotton’ and the country is the top cotton producer in Africa. Which country?
Benin. More about President Patrice Talon here, here and here. In January 2023, opposition politicians were elected to parliament for the first time in four years. More about Benin being Africa’s top cotton producer here and here.
15) This country’s ex-president was sentenced to life (in absentia) in 2022 for the assassination of his predecessor in 1987. That leader was only 37 at the time and was a popular pan-Africanist figure hailed for his socialist reforms and speeches. He also changed his country’s name to the ‘Land of Upright People’. Who and which country?
The assassinated leader is Thomas Sankara. He changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso. More about Sankara here, here , here, here and here. Blaise Compaore, who had been deputy to Sankara, seized power after the assassination and was president until he was deposed in a popular uprising in 2014.
16) X straddles Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. It has shrunk by 90 per cent over the past 60 years and is often cited as a cautionary example of climate change, amid corruption and conflict. In 2016 the UN aid chief referred to the region as the world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis. What is X?
Lake Chad. More here, here and here. Below is my earlier quiz on the strategic significance of the country Chad, a key ally of France whose forces played a crucial role in the French-led offensive in 2013 to push back Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Mali.
17) Several artefacts stolen during the colonial era have been returned to Nigeria by museums in Europe and the U.S. over the past year. What are they known as?
Benin Bronzes. More here, here and here.
Guinea’s Alpha Conde, Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo and independent Senegal’s first president and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor are featured in my earlier quiz on Academics as National Leaders.