What Emmanuel Macron calls an “epidemic” of coups in Francophone Africa is spreading. Not since the Arab Spring have Paris and other Western capitals seemed so overtaken by events, as a string of supposedly stable strongman regimes fall at the hands of ambitious military officers, often cheered on by a new generation disillusioned by unkept democratic promises. There is no easy fix, but a new approach is overdue.
A domino effect in Africa, embarrassment in Paris
