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ZIMBABWE-POLITICS-MUGABE
African leaders driven from power since 2010
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Former Zimbabwean president Robert
Mugabe, whose death was announced on Friday, was on a long list of African
leaders forced from power since 2010.
– 2010 –
– NIGER: On February 18 president Mamadou Tandja is overthrown in a
military coup after changing the constitution to remain in power beyond two
terms. He had been voted into office in 1999.
– 2011 –
– TUNISIA: After 23 years in power, and under massive popular pressure,
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia with his family on January 14.
– EGYPT: Hosni Mubarak resigns on February 11, after widespread protests,
ending his 30-year reign and handing power to the army.
– IVORY COAST: On April 11, Laurent Gbagbo — in power since a
controversial 2000 election — is arrested after a more than four-month
crisis caused by his refusal to recognise the victory of Alassane Ouattara in
the 2010 presidential election.
– LIBYA: Dictator Moamer Kadhafi is captured and killed on October 20 after
nearly 42 years in power, nine months after NATO-backed rebels rose up
against his regime.
– 2012 –
– MALI: Mutinous soldiers overthrow the Bamako government and detain
president Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, precipitating the fall of the
north to Islamist rebels allied with Al-Qaeda.
– GUINEA BISSAU: A coup takes place on April 12 between two rounds of a
presidential poll with troops ousting president Raimundo Pereira and the
former prime minister.
– 2013 –
– CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Ten years after seizing power, General Francois
Bozize flees on March 24 when rebels from the Muslim-dominated group Seleka
seize the presidential palace, unleashing a bloody conflict with mainly
Christian militias.
– EGYPT: On July 3 the military ousts Egypt’s first democratically elected
leader, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, after large demonstrations against his
one-year rule.
– 2014 –
– BURKINA FASO: President Blaise Compaore, who came to power in a 1987
coup, flees the country on October 31 after being ousted in a revolt sparked
by his efforts to extend his 27-year hold on power.
Less than a year later, interim president Michel Kafando will be
overthrown, but reinstated a week later.
– 2017 –
– GAMBIA: Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994, leaves the
country on January 21, handing power to Adama Barrow, winner of December 2016
elections. He acts under the threat of military intervention by troops from
neighbouring nations.
– ZIMBABWE: Robert Mugabe resigns on November 21 after 37 years in power,
as parliament debates his impeachment for promoting his wife and no longer
having the physical capacity to carry out his duties.
He is succeeded by his former deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, fired two weeks
earlier.
– 2018 –
– SOUTH AFRICA: Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s first Zulu president in power
since 2009, resigns on February 14 as the ruling ANC party turns against him,
turning the page on nine years of corruption scandals involving him. His
vice-president Cyril Ramaphosa succeeds him.
– 2019 –
– ALGERIA: Ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 82, resigns on April 2,
nearly six weeks after the start of unprecedented protests sparked by his bid
for a fifth term.
His resignation, after two decades in power, comes shortly after the army
demanded the start of impeachment proceedings against him. Abdelkader
Bensalah, speaker of the upper house of parliament, becomes interim
president.
– SUDAN: Omar al-Bashir, in power for three decades, is ousted on April 11
by the military and put under arrest following months of protests against his
iron-fisted rule.
A transitional military council is established to run the country, but
demonstrations continue. After eight months of unrest, Sudan’s first
government in the transition to civilian rule was announced on Thursday.
BSS/AFP/RY/1732 hrs