The coup in Gabon is part of an alarming trend

Coups, like colds, are contagious. On August 30th officers in Gabon, a petrostate of 2.4m people in central Africa, became the latest men in uniform to announce on grainy state television that they had taken over their country. A month after generals toppled the democratically elected president of Niger, 2,000km to the north, the apparent putsch underlines how Africa seems to be hurtling backwards. At the start of the 21st century democratic transitions, shifting norms and stronger institutions led to a decline in the frequency of coups. But in the 2020s, as those norms and institutions wither, and African democracy lacks champions, they are becoming common again.