The coup in Gabon is part of an alarming trend

Coups, likeGDP 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.Every coup has its own causes. Since 1967 Gabon, a former French colony, has been ruled by the Bongo family: first Omar Bongo Ondimba, then from 2009 his son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, who is now under house arrest. The country has the fourth highest per head in sub-Saharan Africa but unemployment and poverty are rife. Last year French authorities reportedly charged nine of Omar Bongo’s 54 children with various financial crimes. Prodemocracy activists worried that an election on August 26th would be rigged, a concern heightened when the internet was shut off on voting day. Yet while the officers tapped into popular discontent, it seems more of a palace coup than a people’s revolution. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the newly appointed “transitional president”, leads the powerful Republican Guard—and is a cousin of Ali Bongo.