Why so many Coups? And why now?: Looking at the state of democracy in Africa.

GDP - The Global Development Primer

On October 25, 2021 military officers in Sudan staged a coup and took the capital. Sudan's coup follows coups in Chad, Guinea, and two in Mali. Madagascar and the Central African Republic experienced a failed attempt each. For the past twenty years coups were becoming rare in the African continent, and they were never condoned or encouraged by members of the African Union, or the international community. But now, there is an uptick in strongmen in uniform toppling democratic processes. Why, and why now? A long-standing expert on democratic institutions in Northern African and the Middle East, Milica Panic shares her thoughts about what is going on in Sudan, and the growing threats to democracies in the region.

Milica Panic is an accomplished program leader with more than 20 years of experience designing and managing complex governance programs, including deep experience working across both sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). Beginning her career as a peace activist in her native Serbia, Milica went on to design and implement programs focused on women’s political inclusion in South-East Europe, Russia and Palestine for Norwegian People’s Aid. Later she led governance and civil society programs for the International Republican Institute in Iraq, Sudan and South Sudan, before serving as IRI’s deputy regional director for Africa. Before joining Pact, Milica worked with DAI, where she served as a director on the project delivery team. Between 2016 and 2021, Milica was COP for the USAID Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative, a project renowned for its innovative approaches to network building, adaptive management and politically smart programming.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

Check out the work of Pact: https://www.pactworld.org