Do not allow Russia's Wagner to turn Africa into its playground

This video grab taken from handout footage posted May 25, 2023, on the Telegram account of the press service of Concord - a company linked to Russian mercenary Wagner group, shows Yevgeny Prigozhin speaking from Bakhmut.

Military coups seem to be finding their way back into Africa. The democratically elected President of Niger, Mr Mohamed Bazoum, is the latest victim of a coup that toppled his government two weeks ago. In a space of only three years, West Africa has experienced coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Niger.

These coups bring back painful memories of military takeovers that charactersied the Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Africans breathed collective sighs of relief when a wave of democratisation swept through the continent in the 1990s, and with it came a level of development hitherto unseen in Africa.