{"id":8224,"date":"2024-04-03T20:47:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/?p=8224"},"modified":"2024-04-03T20:48:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:48:07","slug":"another-u-s-trained-soldier-stages-a-coup-in-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geopoliticalcompass.com\/?p=8224","title":{"rendered":"Another U.S.-Trained Soldier Stages a Coup in West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Author<\/b>:<\/span> Nick Turse<\/span><\/a><\/p>

Affiliation<\/b>: <\/span>The Intercept<\/span><\/a>, The Nation Institute, and TomDispatch.com<\/span><\/p>

Organization\/Publisher:<\/b> The Intercept<\/span><\/a><\/p>

Date\/Place: <\/b>January 26, 2022 \/New York, USA<\/span><\/p>

Type of Literature:<\/b> Article<\/span><\/p>

Word Count: <\/b>1360<\/span><\/p>

Link<\/b>: <\/span>https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/01\/26\/burkina-faso-coup-us-military\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Keywords:<\/b> USA, West Africa, Foreign Military Training, and Military Coups<\/span><\/i><\/p>

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Brief:<\/b><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Nick Turse discusses the direct relationship between the US military training provided to West African soldiers and generals and their initiation of military coups in their countries. Turse highlights more than one example of US-trained military officers who led military coups in West African countries during the last two decades. In the beginning, he refers to the latest military coup against the democratically-elected president in Burkina Faso that brought Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba to power a few days ago. He states that, according to AFRICOM (The United States Africa Command), Damiba has participated in several US military trainings in the period between 2010 and 2020 such as \u2018the Flintlock exercise\u2019. This is one case among many others of coup leaders trained by the US as part of its \u201csecurity assistance\u201d, with an estimated budget of more than one billion dollars to \u201csustain stability\u201d in the region. Other examples include nine coups in different West African states since 2008 such as \u201cBurkina Faso (three times), Guinea, Mali (three times), Mauritania, and the Gambia\u201d. In addition to this pattern in West African countries is also the US-trained Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi\u2019s military coup against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt\u2019s first elected president. This security assistance encompasses teams of commandos who provide advise and assist local forces, providing weapons and aircrafts, as well as introducing training programs such as Flintlock with the objective of empowering these African militaries and maintaining their capacities to fight terrorism. AFRICOM claims that its training programs emphasize on human rights and the rule of law and it refuses any charges of military seizures of power through coups related to its training. On the contrary, Jonathan Caverley and Jesse Savage argue that there is \u201ca robust relationship between U.S. training of foreign militaries and military-backed coup attempts\u201d based on an analysis study of data between 1970 and 2009.<\/span><\/p>

Nick Turse\u2019s argument underlines the military coups clich\u00e9 and how they are stereotyped in their structure while shedding the light on the association of many of these coup leaders with a form of US military training or education. He shows more than one evidence in his overview of several coups occurring in West Africa particularly and elsewhere. However, the article requires more clarification about these training programs\u2019 frameworks, its details, and justification of this correlation. For instance, Flintlock is one of these mentioned training programs. Flintlock is \u2018U.S. Africa Command\u2019s premier and largest annual Special Operations Forces exercise\u2019 which includes several participating African countries such as \u2018Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cabo Verde, Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo\u2019 as well as other international partners including \u2018Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States\u2019. Correspondingly, it could be argued that it\u2019s a post-colonial framework of surveillance over former African colonies which encompasses different Western countries under the leadership of the USA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>


By: <\/b>Yomna S\u00fcleyman, <\/span>CIGA Research Assistant<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Nick Turse Affiliation: The Intercept, The Nation Institute, and TomDispatch.com Organization\/Publisher: The Intercept Date\/Place: January 26, 2022 \/New York, USA Type of Literature: Article Word Count: 1360 Link: https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/01\/26\/burkina-faso-coup-us-military\/ \u00a0 Keywords: USA, West Africa, Foreign Military Training, and Military Coups \u00a0 Brief: \u00a0 Nick Turse discusses the direct relationship between the US military training 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