Recent developments on the African continent show that the tide is turning away from francophone West Africa, which has seen 9 military coups in the last 7 years, and towards the Horn of Africa. Signs of impending instability are most visible in Ethiopia.

This is particularly evident in the recent unrest in Kenya, where people took to the streets in large numbers to protest against a new tax bill introduced by President William Ruto’s government.

The protests, which began in the capital Nairobi on 18 June, quickly spread to other parts of the country. When the Kenyan parliament passed the new law on 25 June, just minutes later crowds of angry protesters stormed the building, setting part of it on fire and demanding the resignation of the government and the president, who quickly withdrew the law and declared a state of emergency.

The unrest in the country became so acute that US Ambassador Meg Whitman hastily left Kenya, followed by thousands of tourists. The police and military used not only tear gas and rubber bullets, but also live ammunition to disperse the demonstrations, leaving at least 23 people dead and around 200 injured.

And it happened in a country that is seen as a “beacon of stability” in a very turbulent region, and that was recently described by the Biden administration as a “key non-NATO ally of the United States”.

Signs of impending instability in Ethiopia have begun to emerge. On 4 July this year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told parliament that Ethiopia was facing the threat of a coup.

He said there had been increasing talk of a military coup in the country recently among tribal elders and other personalities. The Prime Minister said, “I want to warn them that this will end in failure and that they are wasting the money they are getting from their friends who are funding them”. However, Abiy Ahmed refrained from naming specific individuals to whom he was giving advice and who he was referring to from their outside friends.

US forms coalition that could lead to coup

According to the Ethiopian publication The Reporter, Addis Ababa’s fears of a possible coup arose after the press reported that US officials had met with Ethiopian opposition party leaders inside the........

© New Eastern Outlook