Across six decades and fifty-three nations, a recurring drama unfolds: a general seizes power in the name of cleaner government, and the institutions capable of delivering that cleanliness are the first things destroyed. Analysis of 222 coup attempts between 1960 and 2024 reveals that military takeovers in Africa do not interrupt corruption — they deepen it, systematically and without exception. The promise of renewal has always been the mechanism of its own defeat, because the courts, the press, and the legislature that accountability requires are precisely what a coup removes. Nine countries
Data Shows African Military Coups Worsen Corruption, Not Fix It
Coups halt human development progress and economic opportunity for affected populations, widening development gaps between stable and coup-prone nations over three decades.