coup

The sentence handed to the far-right politician last month has become a major issue in Brazil-US relations.

Lawyers for Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have filed an appeal against his 27-year prison sentence handed down last month for a botched military coup after his 2022 election loss.

The 85-page motion filed with the Supreme Court on Monday sought a review of parts of Bolsonaro’s conviction, including his sentence.

United States President Donald Trump has branded the prosecution of his far-right ally a “witch-hunt” and made it a major issue in his country’s relations with Brazil.

Bolsonaro was convicted in September over his bid to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power following the 2022 vote.

The effort saw crowds storm government buildings a week after Lula’s inauguration, drawing comparisons with the January 6 riot at the US Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

The motion filed by Bolsonaro’s lawyers asserted there were “deep injustices” in his conviction and sentence. It did not stipulate how much of a reduction in the sentence was being sought.

Failed coup

Last month, four of five judges on a Supreme Court panel found Bolsonaro guilty of five crimes, including taking part in an armed criminal organisation, trying to violently abolish democracy and organising a coup.

Prosecutors said the plot entailed the assassination of Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and failed only due to a lack of support from military leaders.

Trump cited his displeasure with the prosecution in July as he announced punitive tariffs against Brazil and imposed sanctions against Brazilian officials.

Bolsonaro, who has been under house arrest since August, has denied wrongdoing. Under Brazilian law, he will not be sent to prison until all legal avenues are exhausted.

Judicial revisions possible

Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told the AFP news agency that while it is unusual for the Supreme Court to reverse its rulings, it had made revisions in the past, including to the length of sentences.

Defendants sentenced by the Supreme Court usually need two judges to diverge on a ruling to request an appeal that could significantly change the decision, Reuters reported.

After only one justice dissented, Bolsonaro’s lawyers filed a lesser motion seeking clarification or review of specific parts of the conviction.

If his appeal fails, Bolsonaro, 70, could request to serve his sentence under house arrest, claiming poor health.

He was recently diagnosed with skin cancer and was briefly admitted to hospital last month with other health issues.

Nigeria’s corridors of power are again trembling under the weight of suspicion. President Bola Tinubu’s dramatic overhaul of the nation’s military command has ignited debate, fear, and whispers of betrayal within the ranks, days after reports of a foiled coup attempt surfaced.

On Oct. 24, the President dismissed General Christopher Musa, his Chief of Defence Staff, replacing him with General Olufemi Oluyede, formerly Chief of Army Staff. Major General Waidi Shaibu now heads the army, Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke becomes the new Air Chief, and Rear Admiral Idi Abbas takes charge of the navy. Only Major General Emmanuel Akomaye Parker Undiandeye, Chief of Defence Intelligence, retained his seat — a notable exception in an otherwise sweeping purge.

A State House statement signed by Sunday Dare, Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, claimed the changes were made “to strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.” But some Nigerians are taking the government’s explanation at face value.

The shake-up comes amid rumours of an attempted coup — reports that Tinubu’s administration has tried to downplay but cannot entirely dismiss.

Although the Defence Headquarters did not directly acknowledge any intentions of a coup, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, a representative of the organisation, mentioned on Oct. 4 that 16 officers were being investigated for disciplinary issues and breaches of service protocols. This situation arose a year after Nigerians demanded a military intervention in response to escalating economic difficulties.

However, sources within Nigeria’s corridors of power have told HumAngle that more reshuffling will occur in the coming weeks as the Tinubu-led administration fights to maintain its grip on democratic power. The sources stated that amid ongoing investigations, the service chiefs were rejigged to fill the gaps in the military intelligence system. 

Over 20 officers are now under detention following what officials described as “disciplinary breaches”. However, insiders suggest something deeper, pointing to a widening rift inside the armed forces and a purge disguised as reform.

“All the suspects are from one region,” a source familiar with the investigation said. “If this were really a coup, how could it have succeeded? What’s happening looks more like a purge than a coup plot. Perhaps they may be clearing the path for someone not yet in the picture.”

The officer added that growing grievances among northern officers have festered for months, notably since recruitment shifted from state-based quotas to geopolitical zones. “The north, which has three regions, has now been reduced to one,” another senior officer lamented.

For many within the ranks, the move feels political. Yet the government remains tight-lipped, neither naming nor prosecuting the detained officers. And “the evidence is sketchy,” one insider admitted. “In the end, what may happen is compulsory retirement for many of them, and rarely will there ever be a treason trial.”

Nigeria has experienced this troubling pattern in its history. The country’s modern timeline is marked by a series of military interventions, beginning with the first coup in 1966 and continuing through violent takeovers in 1975, 1983, and 1985, culminating in the Abacha dictatorship that suffocated the nation during the 1990s. Each coup was accompanied by promises of reform, yet the reality was one of repression, economic decline, and bloodshed.

What makes today’s situation chillingly familiar is the regional context. Across Africa, coups are no longer distant echoes of a troubled past; they have become resurgent realities. From Mali and Burkina Faso to Niger, Gabon, and now Madagascar, nine coups have shaken the continent since 2020, eroding democratic norms and emboldening soldiers who see themselves as saviours of failed civilian governments.

In Nigeria, where frustration is soaring over economic collapse, inflation, and insecurity, the thin line between democracy and disorder is wearing dangerously thin.

For President Tinubu, the latest reshuffle is both a desperate consolidation of power and an implicit admission of fragility. Analysts warn that internal divisions within the military, especially along regional lines, could prove explosive if left unchecked.

“There’s no better time to reform the armed forces than now,” one senior intelligence officer told HumAngle. “It’s far more important than even a constitutional review. We cannot afford a significant population bearing guns to remain aggrieved.” There are so many things wrong with the security sector that we must pay attention to, said the senior intelligence officer. 

Exiled former President Andry Rajoelina condemns takeover and refuses to step down despite defections in the security forces.

Madagascar’s coup leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power this month after Gen Z-driven protests forced the former president out the country, has appointed a new prime minister.

Randrianirina, who was sworn in as president last week, said on Monday that he had chosen businessman Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo as the new prime minister because of his experience and “connections with the international organisations that work with us”.

Andry Rajoelina, the former president, whom lawmakers impeached for desertion of duty after he fled abroad last weekend, has condemned the army takeover and refused to step down while in exile.

Rajoelina fled for his life amid the nationwide protests led by the “Gen Z Madagascar” youth movement, which initially erupted in September over persistent water and power cuts and soon expanded into calls for a system overhaul.

Rajoelina says he has travelled to a safe location, which he has not disclosed. Last week he also said that a resignation letter attributed to him was fake, and warned citizens that “lies” were being spread to “confuse” the public.

Randrianirina’s military coup has been condemned by the United Nations and by the African Union, which suspended Madagascar’s membership.

The little-known army colonel, who has long been a vocal critic of Rajoelina, the new president made his move when his soldiers rebelled and joined the anti-government demonstrations.

His appearance riding on an armoured car among the protesters and accompanying them to a main square to demonstrate meant he emerged as the leader of the uprising, which before that time had no visible figure in charge.

The country’s High Constitutional Court ratified the takeover within hours of it happening.

A military unit in Madagascar says it is taking control of the country’s security forces as President Andry Rajoelina alleged an “attempt to seize power illegally” was under way.

The CAPSAT contingent, based in the Soanierana district on the outskirts of the capital, Antananarivo, joined thousands of antigovernment demonstrators on Saturday, calling on security forces to “refuse orders to shoot” and condemning police action taken to quell more than two weeks of youth-led protests that have rocked the Indian Ocean island.

The demonstration in the capital, Antananarivo, was one of the largest since the protest movement erupted on September 25, sparked by anger over power and water shortages.

Police used stun grenades and tear gas in attempts to disperse the crowds of several thousand people. Few left as soldiers from the CAPSAT contingent of administrative and technical officers entered the city in army vehicles to join the demonstrators.

They were greeted with cheers from protesters, who called out, “Thank you!” to the uniformed soldiers, some waving Madagascar flags.

On Sunday, Rajoelina released a statement saying: “An attempt to seize power illegally and by force, contrary to the Constitution and to democratic principles, is currently under way.”

“Dialogue is the only way forward and the only solution to the crisis currently facing the country,” he said while calling for unity.

Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest countries and has experienced frequent popular uprisings since its independence from France in 1960.

Faced with near-daily protests since September 25, Rajoelina dismissed his government on September 30 and appointed an army general as prime minister, but the move failed to quell the uprising.

Soldiers from a Madagascar army unit have declared support for the youth-led anti-government protests, urging police to disobey ‘unlawful orders.’ President Andry Rajeolina says an ‘attempted illegal seizure of power’ is under way.

Brazil’s prosecutor general has charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro has “repeatedly sought to subordinate the interests of Brazil and the entire society to his own personal and family agenda”, the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement on Monday.

Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the United States this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father and has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods.

The lawmaker linked Monday’s charge to new sanctions imposed by the US on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Jair Bolsonaro’s trial. His son called the staff of the prosecutor general’s office “Moraes’s lackeys”.

Eduardo Bolsonaro added that he received news of the “bogus accusation” from the media and would wait for the legal case to be communicated through official channels before making a formal statement.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison, shortly after a majority of a Supreme Court panel voted to convict him on charges related to an attempted military coup.

On Thursday, four out of five of the justices had found Bolsonaro guilty of trying to illegally retain power after his 2022 electoral defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Justice Carmen Lucia said there was ample evidence that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions”.

A fourth judge, Justice Luiz Fux, broke with his colleagues on Wednesday and voted to acquit the 70-year-old former president of all charges.

Currently under house arrest, Bolsonaro faced up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty on five charges, including leading a “criminal organisation” to conspire to overthrow Lula.

Still, Fux’s vote could invite challenges to the ruling.

Bolsonaro has maintained he will run for president in 2026, despite Brazil’s top electoral court barring him from running in elections until 2030 for spreading unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.

The Supreme Court also convicted seven co-conspirators, including former defence minister and Bolsonaro’s 2022 running mate Walter Braga Netto; former Defence Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira; Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp Mauro Cid; his military adviser Augusto Heleno Ribeiro; former Justice Minister Anderson Torres; former naval chief Almir Garnier Santos; and ex-police officer Alexandre Ramagem.

Reporting from Brasilia, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said the sentencing, which was originally scheduled for Friday, was unexpected.

“It’s extremely significant and also a surprise,” she said. “The last of the five justices gave his guilty verdict just a short time ago, and then he and the remaining four had to calculate what the sentence would be.”

“We have to keep very much in mind that this may or may not happen immediately,” she added. “Bolsonaro’s lawyers and that of the other seven co-defendants still have some legal wiggle room here.”

“Apart from that, the supporters of Bolsonaro in Congress have already submitted an amnesty law, hopefully to get Bolsonaro off the hook,” she said.

United States President Donald Trump has called his ally’s trial a “witch-hunt”, hitting Brazil with 50 percent tariffs, imposing sanctions against the presiding judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and revoking visas for most members of Brazil’s high court. Trump said on Thursday that he was very unhappy about Bolsonaro’s conviction.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would “respond accordingly to this witch-hunt”.

“The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil’s supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Rubio said.

Antiestablishment anger

Bolsonaro, a former army captain and paratrooper, became known for his defence of Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship after being elected to the back benches of Congress in 1990 in the early years of Brazil’s democracy.

He never hid his admiration for the military regime, which killed hundreds of Brazilians from 1964 to 1985.

In one interview, he said Brazil would only change “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000”. He was referring to leftists and political opponents.

Later, he surfed on mass protests that erupted across Brazil in 2014 during the sprawling “car wash” bribery scandal that implicated hundreds of politicians – including Lula, whose conviction was later annulled.

His antiestablishment anger helped elevate him to the presidency in 2018, and dozens of far-right lawmakers were elected on his coattails, creating roadblocks to Lula’s progressive agenda.

Facing a close re-election campaign against Lula in 2022 – an election Lula went on to win – Bolsonaro’s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.

“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said in remarks to a meeting of evangelical Christian leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”

Bolsonaro maintains a solid political base within Brazil, and the verdict is expected to be met with widespread unrest.

About 40,000 of his supporters took to the streets of Brasilia over the weekend to voice their discontent, supporting his claim that he is being politically targeted.

Sept. 11 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for his role in planning a 2023 coup that prosecutors claim may have included assassinating President Lula da Silva.

The nation’s Supreme Court voted to convict former Bolsonaro earlier on Thursday.

Three members of the court’s five-judge panel on Thursday voted to convict Bolsonaro, 70, on all five counts related to the coup attempt, CNN reported.

Justice Carmen Lucia Antunes Rocha delivered the deciding vote on Thursday and accused Bolsonaro of trying to “sow the malignant seed of anti-democracy,” according to The Guardian.

Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Flavio Dino on Tuesday also voted to convict the former president.

Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday voted against the conviction and said there is “absolutely no proof” of Bolsonaro’s guilt.

Prosecutors charged Bolsonaro with plotting a coup, participating in an armed criminal organization, trying to end Brazil’s democracy by force, violent acts against the state and damaging public property.

Prosecutors also accused Bolsonaro of plotting the potential use of explosives, poison or weapons of war to assassinate Lula da Silva.

The charges arose from Bolsonaro’s supporters storming government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023, and carry a potential sentence of up to 43 years in prison.

The court is scheduled to sentence Bolsonaro on Friday after receiving the case’s final vote from Justice Cristiano Zanin.

The Brazilian Congress might approve an amnesty bill that would negate the conviction and enable Bolsonaro to run for president in 2026.

Bolsonaro is a former Brazilian military paratrooper and won election as the nation’s president in 2018.

Prosecutors said he began plotting against the Brazilian government in July 2021, which culminated in his supporters overrunning the nation’s Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace on Jan.8, 2023.

Arrest of Yann Vezilier, accused of trying to destabilise Mali, marks new low in relations between Paris and Bamako.

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has said that a French man recently arrested in Mali on “unfounded” charges of plotting a coup was a French embassy employee.

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it was in talks with Bamako to “clear up any misunderstanding” and obtain the “immediate release” of Yann Vezilier, who had been arrested in recent weeks alongside two generals and other military personnel.

It added that the arrest of the French national was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Mali’s security minister, General Daoud Aly Mohammedine, had announced Vezilier’s arrest on Thursday, alleging that he had been working for the French intelligence services, mobilising “political leaders, civil society actors, and military personnel” to destabilise the country.

Mohammedine said that a full investigation into the alleged plot, which he said had been launched on August 1, was under way and that “the situation is completely under control”.

The arrests followed a crackdown on dissent following a pro-democracy rally in May, the first since the military government came to power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

France’s once close relationship with its former colony in West Africa’s Sahel region has soured since soldiers seized power nearly four years ago.

The military government, led by President Assimi Goita, has turned away from Western partners, notably former colonial power France, expelling its troops and turning to Russia for security assistance.

The country has since been gripped by a security crisis since 2012, fuelled notably by violence from groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group, as well as local criminal gangs.

In June, Goita was granted an additional five years in power, despite the military government’s earlier promises of a return to civilian rule by March 2024. The move followed the military’s dissolution of political parties in May.

Supreme Court will rule on ex-president’s fate in case dividing nation that could result in lengthy prison term.

Brazil’s Supreme Court says it will hand down a verdict and sentence in former President Jair Bolsonaro’s coup trial early next month, in a case that has polarised the country and drawn in the ex-leader’s ally, United States President Donald Trump.

The court announced on Friday that the five-justice panel overseeing the proceedings will deliver decisions on the five charges between September 2 and 12. A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years.

Bolsonaro, under house arrest since August 4, is accused of orchestrating a plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He denies the allegations.

Prosecutors allege Bolsonaro led a criminal organisation that sought to overturn the election results.

The case includes accusations that the plot involved plans to kill Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is presiding over the trial. They have presented messages, handwritten notes and other material they say document the conspiracy.

Defence lawyers counter that no coup attempt was carried out and that Bolsonaro allowed the presidential handover to take place, undermining claims he tried to block it.

The five charges against Bolsonaro include attempting a coup, participation in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic order, and two counts linked to destruction of state property.

Two separate five-justice panels operate within Brazil’s top court. Justice de Moraes, a frequent target of Bolsonaro’s supporters, sits on the panel hearing the case. Although Bolsonaro appointed two justices during his 2019–2022 presidency, both serve on the other panel.

Separately, right-wing Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro said on Friday that he met with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week as part of his campaign to secure sanctions against officials linked to the trial of his father, Bolsonaro.

In a post on X, Bolsonaro said the meeting took place on Wednesday, the same day Bessent had been expected to hold talks with Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.

Haddad told journalists earlier in the week that the US Treasury cancelled his meeting without offering a new date.

The younger Bolsonaro has been vocal in defending his father and calling for sanctions on his own country following his father’s alleged coup attempt.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the targets of a rioting mob of supporters known as “Bolsonaristas”, who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to depose Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.

The rioting also prompted comparisons to Brazil’s 1964 military coup, a dark era that Bolsonaro has openly praised.

The trial has captivated Brazil’s divided public. Tensions deepened when Trump linked a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports to his ally’s legal battle, calling the proceedings a “witch hunt” and describing Bolsonaro as an “honest man” facing “political execution”.

The Trump administration has also sanctioned Justice de Moraes and imposed further trade restrictions on Brazil, a move widely criticised in the country as an assault on national sovereignty.

A recent Datafolha poll found more than half of Brazilians support the decision to place Bolsonaro under house arrest, while 53 percent reject the idea that he is being politically persecuted.

Former president denies involvement in alleged effort to overturn his loss in the 2022 election.

Lawyers have submitted a final statement on behalf of Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro in a trial focused on his alleged role in a plot to stay in power despite losing the 2022 election.

In a statement submitted on Wednesday evening, Bolsonaro’s legal representatives denied the charges against him and said that prosecutors had presented no convincing evidence.

“There is no way to convict Jair Bolsonaro based on the evidence presented in the case, which largely demonstrated that he ordered the transition … and assured his voters that the world would not end on December 31st,” the document states.

The right-wing former president faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of attempting to mount a coup after losing a presidential election to left-wing rival and current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro, who raised alarm in the months leading up to the election by casting doubt on the voting process, has denied involvement in the plot, which allegedly included plans for Lula’s assassination.

The former leader’s legal representatives say the fact that he authorised the transition contradicts the coup allegations.

“This is evidence that eliminates the most essential of the accusatory premises,” they said.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet submitted final arguments in July, citing handwritten notes, digital files, message exchanges, and spreadsheets that he said show details of a conspiracy to suppress democracy.

Following Bolsonaro’s election loss, crowds of his supporters gathered outside of military bases, calling on the armed forces to intervene and prevent Lula from taking office. A group of Bolsonaro’s supporters also stormed federal buildings in the capital of Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Some drew parallels to a military coup in the 1960s that marked the beginning of a decades-long period of dictatorship, for which Bolsonaro himself has long expressed fondness.

Bolsonaro and his allies, including United States President Donald Trump, have depicted the trial as a politically motivated “witch hunt”.

A recent survey conducted by Datafolha, a Brazilian polling institute, found that more than 50 percent of Brazilians agree with the court’s decision to place Bolsonaro under house arrest in August. The survey also found that a majority believe that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a frequent target of right-wing ire and central figure in the trial, is following the law.

Respondents also largely disagreed with the claim that Bolsonaro was being persecuted for political reasons, with 39 percent in agreement and 53 percent in disagreement.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump said Bolsonaro was an “honest man” and the victim of an attempted “political execution”.

The Trump administration has mounted a pressure campaign to push the court to drop Bolsonaro’s case, sanctioning De Moraes and announcing severe sanctions on Brazilian exports to the US. That move has met anger in Brazil and been depicted as an attack on Brazilian sovereignty.

Tensions are high in Mali’s capital, Bamako, after the arrests of dozens of soldiers in recent days, including two high-ranking generals. Although shops and offices stayed open on Tuesday, residents, including one journalist, told Al Jazeera the atmosphere there is uneasy.

Mali’s military government has so far remained silent about the spate of arrests. However, unofficial reports said the soldiers are being detained for their alleged involvement in a coup plot that aimed to overthrow General Assimi Goita’s government.

The landlocked West African country, located in the semiarid Sahel region, is embroiled in a myriad of political and security crises. The recent arrests, analysts said, mark the first time the military is cracking down on soldiers within its ranks on suspicion of a coup.

Here’s what you need to know about the arrests:

Who was arrested and why?

Conflicting reports have emerged since the arrests over the weekend and on Monday.

Reports by the French news channel RFI put the number of arrested soldiers at at least 50 while the Reuters news agency reported 36 to 40 soldiers have been detained.

Two generals are reportedly among them.

Abass Dembele, a former military governor of the northern region of Mopti, was arrested on Sunday morning in his home in Kati, a garrison town just outside Bamako, according to RFI.

Dembele is popular among Malian soldiers and has a reputation as an officer who often leads from the front. He was active in the northern war of 2012, a civil war that broke out after Tuareg separatists parlayed with armed groups to seize more than 60 percent of the country. The failure of the Malian army to push the rebels back prompted France to deploy thousands of soldiers.

Air force General Nema Sagara is another top official believed to be detained. Sagara is one of the few high-ranking female military officials in Mali and throughout the region. She is also one of the few female Malian officers to have been drafted into battle when she fought in the civil war of 2013.

Al Jazeera, however, could not independently confirm the veracity of the reports.

What is happening in Mali?

Since 2012, Mali’s army has battled a swarm of armed groups in the north, including Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in the greater Sahara (ISGS).

The fighting has resulted in thousands of deaths while up to 350,000 people are currently displaced, according to Human Rights Watch. Several northern towns in rebel-held territory are under siege by the armed groups, limiting food, fuel and medical supplies. The groups operate in the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger border area.

Promising to end the violence, then-Colonel Goita, 41, took power in two successive coups in 2020 and 2021. He was sworn in as transitional president in June 2021. Under his control, the country severed ties with its former coloniser, France, and thousands of French soldiers involved in the fight against the armed groups exited the country.

The military rulers have since turned to Russian private mercenaries and military officials under the Wagner Group and Africa Corps. The army and the Russians have recorded wins but also heavy losses.

What has the military government said?

The military government has not put out an official statement stating the reasons for the arrests.

RFI quoted an unnamed Malian senior military officer close to the government as saying the soldiers were arrested because “they wanted to destabilise the transition,” referring to the military government, which calls itself a transitional government that is expected eventually to hand over power to a civilian administration.

Many of those arrested were confirmed by RFI to be members of the national guard. The special unit is headed by Defence Minister and General Sadio Camara. In elite military circles in Bamako, Camara is increasingly seen as a rival to Goita although they were both part of the team of coup leaders who seized power. The rifts inside the military come as some of Goita’s policies have begun to irk many, both in the military and among civilians.

This week’s arrests, some critics said, are the strongest sign yet that the military’s control is weakening from the inside. While Goita is the head of state, he appears not to have complete control over the armed forces, analysts said.

Due to the reported cracks, the military government will want to project a strong image, hence its silence, Beverly Ochieng, a Sahel analyst with the intelligence firm Control Risks, told Al Jazeera.

“[These arrests] indicate some pronounced divisions,” Ochieng said. “Quite a few red lines have been crossed in recent months, and people are bound to be tired. It is likely that the military leadership will maintain and project a united front to downplay vulnerabilities and internal rivalries.”

Is there a crackdown on dissent?

Critics said Goita’s recent policies appear to attack dissenters and aim to shrink the civic space in the troubled country.

Goita’s government, for example, approved a bill in July that would allow him to seek a five-year presidential mandate, renewable “as many times as necessary” and without requiring an election. Earlier, when it seized power, the military promised to hand over power to civilians in 2024.

In May, the military government dissolved political parties and organisations and banned political meetings, drawing condemnation from opposition politicians and rights groups.

In addition, the military government has targeted outspoken critics. This month, former Prime Minister Moussa Mara was arrested and charged with “undermining the credibility of the state” after he visited political prisoners and posted about seeking justice for them.

“As long as the night lasts, the sun will obviously appear!” Mara had written on July 4 in a social media post, adding: “We will fight by all means for this to happen as soon as possible!”

Choguel Maiga, who was the prime minister until his ouster in November, has also accused Goita’s government of targeting him. Although Maiga was once a champion of the government, he became critical of Goita this year. In July, the government accused him of fraud and embezzlement during his time in office and launched an investigation.

What else is fuelling anger in the country?

Alongside the political situation, a lack of security remains rife in the country, causing frustration among many Malians.

Several armed groups continue to operate in the north, including JNIM. Human Rights Watch (HRW) blames the military forces and their Russian counterparts for targeting civilians indiscriminately on the assumption that they work with armed groups. At least 12 men from the Fulani ethnic group appear to have been executed and 81 forcibly disappeared since January, HRW said in a report.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are also military led, banded together to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) this year after they withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States.They also created a 5,000-strong force for joint military operations to try to drive out armed groups.

Separately, the Malian army is once again battling Tuareg separatists. Although there were peace agreements made after the 2012 war that allowed the northern region of Kidal to maintain a semiautonomous nature, the military government under Goita has torn up the peace deals and returned to fighting, forcing hundreds of people to flee across the border to Mauritania.

In late July, Malian forces said they killed 70 “terrorists” in a raid in the north without specifying if those killed were with an armed group or were separatists.

July 18 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was ordered by his country’s supreme court to wear an ankle monitor, stay home most hours and to stay away from foreign embassies.

He is considered a flight risk after he and his son lobbied President Donald Trump to help him with his legal troubles.

Bolsonaro faces prison time for charges that he attempted a coup after he lost the 2022 election.

Brazilian police now accuse Bolsonaro of working with his son, Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo, to lobby the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., and ask the president to impose sanctions on Brazil. The court told Bolsonaro to cease all communication with Eduardo and stay off social media.

Trump has threatened a 50% tariff on Brazilian exports starting Aug. 1, if they don’t end what he calls a “which hunt” against Bolsonaro.

Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Brazil will not cede to an American president, whom he says wants to be an “emperor.”

Thursday night, Trump posted online that police should drop the charges against Bolsonaro. This morning, police raided Bolsonaro’s home and office.

In a statement, Bolsonaro’s legal team said it was “surprised and outraged” by the new precautionary measures “despite the fact that he has always complied with all the orders of the judiciary.”

Bolsonaro’s lawyers expressed “surprise and indignation” at what they called “severe precautionary measures imposed against him.”

The court didn’t agree.

“An attempt to subject the functioning of the federal Supreme Court to the scrutiny of another state constitutes an attack on national sovereignty,” Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in his order.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bolsonaro called the ankle monitor the “ultimate humiliation.” He said he “never thought of fleeing” Brazil. He repeated that the case against him is a politically motivated effort to remove him from the 2026 election. The New York Times reports that some polls suggest he could narrowly win if eligible.

Last week on Truth Social, Trump said that Brazilian authorities have “done nothing but come after [Bolsonaro], day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year!”

“He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE,” he wrote.

Brazilian Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet released a 517-page document on Monday that called for Bolsonaro to be convicted for his alleged crimes. Bolsonaro could spend decades in prison.

“The evidence is clear: the defendant acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite insurrection and the destabilisation of the democratic rule of law,” Gonet said in the document.

While Trump has maintained a close friendship with Bolsonaro, Brazil and the Lula administration don’t speak highly of Trump.

On Thursday Lula said Trump’s tariff threat lacked logic.

“We cannot have President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the U.S., not to be the emperor of the world,” he said.

United States President Donald Trump has taken to social media to defend his fellow right-wing leader, Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president who faces criminal charges for allegedly plotting a coup d’etat.

On Monday, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Bolsonaro’s indictment was an example of political persecution.

“Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Trump said.

“I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE.”

Trump went on to compare his own legal troubles to Bolsonaro’s. Both leaders have been accused of trying to undermine their country’s elections, following losses.

In Trump’s case, the accusations concern his 2020 race against Democrat Joe Biden. Though Trump lost, prosecutors say he and his allies conspired to defraud voters by pressuring officials to say that he won. The lie culminated in an attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Trump’s supporters sought to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results.

Trump later faced a federal indictment in Washington, DC, and a state-level indictment in Georgia over his actions. The federal charges, however, were dropped once he took office for a second term in January.

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, is facing criminal trial for allegedly masterminding a scheme to retain power after his 2022 election loss to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the lead-up to the election, Bolsonaro spread falsehoods about the accuracy of Brazil’s voting machines, and afterwards refused to publicly concede defeat. Thousands of his supporters likewise stormed government buildings in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, to protest the outcome.

Prosecutors say police unearthed evidence of a scheme wherein Bolsonaro and his allies plotted to hold onto power by means of a coup, one that would have seen Lula and other officials assassinated.

Both Trump and Bolsonaro have denied wrongdoing. In Monday’s posts, Trump said that both of their cases reflected a politically motivated “WITCH HUNT” designed to dim their popularity among voters.

“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent – Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10,” Trump wrote. “The Great People of Brazil will not stand for what they are doing to their former President.”

He appeared to end his post with a call for Bolsonaro’s re-election: “The only Trial that should be happening is a Trial by the Voters of Brazil – It’s called an Election. LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!”

Bolsonaro, however, has been barred from running for office for eight years, a period which expires in 2030. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court issued the punishment in a separate case in 2023 after it found Bolsonaro had abused his power by using government offices to spread doubt about the country’s voting machines.

Trump and Bolsonaro have long faced comparisons with one another. They both took office for a first term in 2017, and both lost their initial re-election attempt. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has been referred to as the “Trump of the tropics”.

Critics have long speculated that Trump may seek to intervene in Brazil’s prosecution of the far-right leader through political pressure.

Earlier this year, for example, the Trump Media and Technology Group joined a lawsuit in Florida against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, arguing that a recent decision from the judge amounted to the censorship of right-wing voices.

De Moraes has overseen the criminal case against Bolsonaro and is considered a target of ire for Brazil’s right.

In a social media response on Monday, President Lula indicated that Trump’s social media missive could be viewed as an attempt to interfere with the Brazilian justice system.

Though he mentioned neither Trump nor Bolsonaro by name, Lula, a left-wing leader, rejected the advice of those who sought to influence the ongoing trial from abroad.

“The defence of democracy in Brazil is a matter for Brazilians to deal with. We are a sovereign country. We do not accept interference or tutelage from anyone,” Lula wrote. “We have solid and independent institutions. No one is above the law. Especially those who threaten freedom and the rule of law.”

Bolsonaro, on the other hand, took to social media to thank Trump explicitly for his words of support.

“I thank the illustrious President and friend. You went through something similar. You were relentlessly persecuted, but you won for the good of the United States and dozens of other truly democratic countries,” Bolsonaro wrote, reflecting on how “happy” he was to see Trump’s note.

Bolsonaro used the occasion to once again proclaim his innocence and blast his political opponents as puppeteering the trial.

“This process to which I am responding is a legal aberration (Lawfare), clear political persecution,” he said.

The former president could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Legal woes hang over the former president, who has called for several demonstrations in support of himself in recent months.

Facing serious legal jeopardy with potentially years of incarceration over an alleged coup plot being tried by the nation’s Supreme Court, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has attended a protest by his supporters.

Around 2,000 people attended the rally on Sunday in Sao Paolo.

On Saturday night, the far-right ex-leader told his followers on the AuriVerde Brasil YouTube channel that “Brazil needs all of us. It’s for freedom, for justice”. He urged supporters to march through Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue on Sunday.

“This is a call for us to show strength … this massive presence will give us courage,” he declared.

In February, Bolsonaro, 70, who led the country from 2019 to 2022, was charged with five counts of planning to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result, which current president, the left-wing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won. Thirty-three of Bolsonaro’s closest allies were also charged.

Earlier this month, Bolsonaro testified for the first time before the nation’s Supreme Court, denying any involvement in the alleged coup plot.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the targets of a rioting mob known as “Bolsonaristas” – who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to oust President Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked the supporters of Bolsonaro ally United States President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

Police have referred to the demonstration as an uprising and an attempt to force military intervention and depose Lula.

Bolsonaro claims that the various cases against him are politically motivated, aimed at preventing him from making a comeback in the 2026 elections.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ruled last year that due to an abuse of Bolsonaro’s political power and his baseless claims about the country’s electronic voting system, he would be banned from holding office until 2030.

‘An abominable thing’

Earlier this month, at Bolsonaro’s first testimony at the Supreme Court, the former president denied that there was a coup attempt.

“There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing,” Bolsonaro said.

“Brazil couldn’t go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government.”

Bolsonaro was abroad in Florida in the US at the time of this last-gasp effort to keep him in power after the alleged coup planning fizzled. But his opponents have accused him of fomenting the rioting.

At the same time, Brazilian police have called for Bolsonaro to be separately charged with illegal espionage while president.

According to legal experts, the sentencing part of the coup plot case is expected in the second half of the year. If convicted, Bolsonaro could face up to 12 years in prison.

During his legal troubles, the former president has called for several protests, but his appearances at them have declined in recent months, as have the crowds.

According to estimates by the University of Sao Paulo, about 45,000 people took part in the most recent march on Paulista Avenue in April, almost four times fewer than in February.

Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a former Bolsonaro minister, is a top candidate to represent the conservatives in the 2026 presidential election.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a leader in protests against the PM, is accused of a plot to overthrow the government.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says security officials have thwarted a coup plot involving a leading cleric from Armenia’s national church.

The arrest of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the opposition movement Holy Struggle, on Wednesday marks a sharp escalation in Pashinyan’s standoff with the leadership of the powerful Apostolic Church.

The church’s leader, Catholicos Garegin II, has called for Pashinyan’s resignation after Armenia lost a war to Azerbaijan in 2020, while Galstanyan, the primate of the Diocese of Tavush, led mass protests last year, aiming to unseat the prime minister, channelling widespread public anger over military defeats and territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

“Law enforcement officers prevented a large and sinister plan by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy’ to destabilize the Republic of Armenia and seize power,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, sharing a statement by Armenia’s Investigative Committee.

The committee said it had filed criminal charges against Galstanyan and 15 others, who they said had “acquired the means and tools necessary to commit a terrorist attack and seize power”.

A total of 14 people had been arrested, investigators said, without naming them.

The committee’s statement claimed that Galstanyan — who has previously expressed his desire to replace Pashinyan as prime minister, although he is unable to hold office due to being a dual Armenian-Canadian citizen — sought to overthrow the government with the help of his supporters.

It said the group had recruited about 1,000 people, mainly former soldiers and police officers, and divided them into strike groups, assigning each a task to destabilise the country, by blocking roads, inciting violence or blocking the internet.

It claimed that the group had acquired weapons, explosives, and other dangerous materials in preparation for the plot.

It said searches were under way at the homes of Galstanyan and about 30 of his associates.

The committee also published audio recordings purporting to reveal Galstanyan and others discussing plans for the alleged coup plot.

‘We are coming’

News.am, an Armenian news website, published footage of Galstanyan being taken from his house into a car by masked police officers, and driven away.

“Evil, listen carefully – whatever you do, you have very little time left. Hold on, we are coming,” he said, in an apparent reference to Pashinyan, as a crowd outside shouted “Nikol is a traitor”, the AFP news agency reported.

A lawmaker close to Galstanyan, Garnik Danielyan, said the raids were “actions of a dictatorial regime” and said the accusations against the archbishop were fabricated, AFP reported.

Wednesday’s developments follow the arrest of another prominent government opponent earlier this month, when Russian-Armenian real estate billionaire Samvel Karapetyan was detained on accusations of making public calls to usurp power, the Reuters news agency reported.

Divided nation

Armenia’s humiliating military defeat by Azerbaijan, resulting in the 2023 loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave in Azerbaijan, has left bitter divisions in Armenia, notably between Pashinyan and the Apostolic Church.

Earlier this month, Pashinyan unsuccessfully attempted to oust Garegin II as the head of the church, calling on the faithful to elect a new spiritual leader to “liberate” the church, AFP reported.

Russia, a treaty ally of Armenia, said the alleged coup plot was an internal matter for Yerevan, but had an interest in calm and order being maintained, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The far-right former president is accused of using Brazil’s intelligence agency to conduct illegal spying.

Brazil’s federal police have formally accused far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro of involvement in an illegal spying network that allegedly snooped on political rivals, journalists and environmentalists during his administration.

Court records allege that under one of Bolsonaro’s aides, Brazil’s spy agency, Agencia Brasileira de Inteligencia (ABIN), ran a “criminal organisation of high offensive capability” from 2019 to 2023, local media reported Tuesday.

According to the police, ABIN used a software called FirstMile, developed by the Israeli company Cognyte.

A Supreme Court document contains the names of several Brazilian public figures who were targets of the snooping operation, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, former Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, and the current head of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies or lower house, Arthur Lira.

The agency was also used to illegally spy on tax auditors who were investigating the president’s eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, according to prosecutors. The intention was to find dirt on them to halt a corruption probe from when the younger Bolsonaro was a Rio de Janeiro councilman.

Names of senior officials from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) were also on the list. As president, Bolsonaro cut the budget of IBAMA by 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, while also cutting funding for other environmental agencies. When he was in office, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged, and Bolsonaro was accused of facilitating this destruction.

Journalists Monica Bergamo of Folha de S Paulo newspaper and Vera Magalhaes of O Globo newspaper were also targeted, the document alleges.

The allegations add to a slew of probes against Bolsonaro, who was rendered ineligible to run for office in 2030 after a failed 2022 re-election campaign. He is also embroiled in a jewellery embezzlement case as well as a case pertaining to him forging his COVID-19 vaccine records.

Last week, Bolsonaro appeared before the Supreme Court for the first time and denied participation in an alleged plot to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result that he lost to current left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the primary targets of a rioting mob of supporters known as “Bolsonaristas”, who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to oust Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked the supporters of Bolsonaro ally United States President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

Bolsonaro was abroad in Florida in the US at the time of this last-gasp effort to keep him in power after the alleged coup planning fizzled. But his opponents have accused him of fomenting the rioting. Bolsonaro said in his testimony that the rioters were “crazy,” not coup mongers.

“There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing,” Bolsonaro said. “Brazil couldn’t go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government.”

The far-right politician admitted to discussing “possibilities” with the heads of the armed forces following his defeat to Lula, but argued that it had been within constitutional limits.

A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years in Brazil. A conviction on that and other charges could bring decades behind bars. The former president has repeatedly denied the allegations and asserted that he is the target of political persecution.

Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, testifying for the first time before the nation’s Supreme Court, has denied involvement in an alleged coup plot to remain in power and overturn the 2022 election result that he lost to current leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro, 70, and seven of his close allies were questioned by a panel of top judges on Tuesday as part of a trial over allegations that they devised a multi-step scheme to keep Bolsonaro in office despite his defeat to Lula.

Bolsonaro and his co-defendants risk prison sentences of up to 40 years in a trial dubbed “historic” – the first ever for an attempted coup under a democratic government in Brazil.

“That’s not the case, your honour,” Bolsonaro replied on Tuesday when asked by Judge Alexandre de Moraes – an arch political foe – about “the truthfulness” of the accusations against him.

“There was never any talk of a coup. A coup is an abominable thing … Brazil couldn’t go through an experience like that. And there was never even the possibility of a coup in my government,” Bolsonaro claimed.

Bolsonaro began his testimony “as if he were on an electoral campaign,” said Al Jazeera’s Monica Yanakiew, reporting from Rio de Janeiro.

The plot only failed, the charge sheet says, due to a clear lack of military backing.

Bolsonaro, a former military officer himself who has been known to express nostalgia for the country’s past military dictatorship, openly defied Brazil’s judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.

On Monday, Bolsonaro’s former right-hand man Mauro Cid – a co-defendant who has turned state’s witness – told the court Bolsonaro had “received and read” a draft decree for the declaration of a state of emergency.

He then “edited” the document, which would have paved the way for measures to “redo the election” and also envisaged the imprisonment of top personalities including Moraes, said Cid.

Cid also testified that he had received cash in a wine crate from Bolsonaro’s former running mate and Defence Minister Walter Braga Netto that investigators say was earmarked to finance an operation by special troops to kill Lula, his Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Moraes.

‘My conscience is clear’

Apart from Cid, the other co-defendants are four ex-ministers and the former heads of Brazil’s navy and intelligence agency.

Most who have taken the stand so far have rejected the bulk of the accusations in the charge sheet. The defendants are standing trial on five counts: attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage and deterioration of listed heritage.

A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years. When combined with the other charges, the accused could be sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars.

Two former army commanders have claimed Bolsonaro hosted a meeting where the declaration of a state of emergency was discussed as a means of overturning Lula’s election victory.

Bolsonaro has denied all the charges, saying he is the target of political and media persecution.

“He said he was being persecuted by the press because he was elected independently of a political establishment and also because he had a conservative agenda, an anti-woke agenda,” said Yanakiew.

He has already been banned in a separate court ruling from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system. However, he is still hoping to run in the 2026 presidential elections.

“They have nothing to convict me; my conscience is clear,” the former leader told reporters on Monday.

Almir Garnier, who was Brazilian Navy commander under Bolsonaro, denied the former president had discussed the declaration of a state of emergency with military officials.

He also denied offering Bolsonaro any Navy troops.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the targets of a rioting mob of supporters known as “Bolsonaristas” – who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to oust Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked the supporters of Bolsonaro ally United States President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.

Bolsonaro was abroad in Florida at the time of this last-gasp effort to keep him in power after the alleged coup planning fizzled. But his opponents have accused him of fomenting the rioting.

Judges will hear from 26 other defendants at a later date. The court has already heard from dozens of witnesses in hearings that began in mid-May.

Fake stories of a coup d’etat in the West African nation of Ivory Coast surfaced this week amid mounting tensions over the upcoming October general elections.

Several accounts on social media sites, including Facebook and X, posted videos of huge crowds on streets with burning buildings, which they claimed were from the country’s commercial capital, Abidjan.

However, no violence was reported by security forces or any other government authorities in the city this week. Abidjan residents also denied the claims on social media.

On Thursday, the country’s National Agency for Information Systems Security of Ivory Coast (ANSSI) denied the rumours.

In a statement published on local media sites, the agency said: “Publications currently circulating on the X network claim that a coup d’etat has taken place in Cote d’Ivoire [Ivory Coast] … This claim is completely unfounded. It is the result of a deliberate and coordinated disinformation campaign.”

The rumours come just weeks after popular opposition politician Tidjane Thiam was barred from running for office after his eligibility was challenged in court over a technicality relating to his citizenship status. Thiam is appealing the ruling and claims the ban is political.

Ivory Coast, Africa’s cocoa powerhouse, has a long history of election violence, with one episode a decade ago spiralling into armed conflict that resulted in thousands of deaths.

Fears that President Alassane Ouattara might run for a fourth term have added to the tensions this time. Although the country has a two-term limit for presidents, a constitutional amendment in 2016 reset the clock on his terms, the president’s supporters argue, allowing him to run for a third five-year term in 2020. That same argument could also see him on the ballot papers this October, despite what experts say is widespread disillusionment with the political establishment in the country.

Here’s what we know about the current political situation in the country:

How did the coup rumours start?

Videos showing hundreds of people demonstrating in the streets and setting fires to shops and malls started appearing on social media sites on Wednesday this week. French is the official language in Ivory Coast, but most of the posts and blogs with images purporting to be from were from Abidjan and claiming that a coup d’etat was in progress were written in English.

Some posts also claimed that the country’s army chief of staff, Lassina Doumbia, had been assassinated and that President Ouattara was missing. These claims were untrue and have been denied by the office of the president. Credible media outlets, including Ivorian state media and private news media, did not report the alleged violence.

It is unclear how the rumours that President Ouattara was missing emerged. On Thursday, he chaired a routine cabinet meeting in the capital. He also attended a ceremony commemorating the revered former president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, alongside Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe.

Why are there political tensions in the country?

The upcoming general elections on October 25 are at the root of current political tensions in the country.

Elections have in the past been violent: During the October 2010 general election, former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand over power to Ouattara, who was proclaimed the winner by the electoral commission.

Tense political negotiations failed, and the situation eventually spiralled into armed civil war, with Ouattara’s forces, backed by French troops, besieging Gbagbo’s national army. France is the former colonial power in Ivory Coast, and Ouattara has close ties to Paris.

Some 3,000 people were killed in the violence. Gbagbo’s capture on April 11, 2011, marked the end of the conflict. He was later tried and acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in 2019.

That painful history has spurred fears that this year’s polls could also turn violent, as several opposition candidates, including Gbagbo, have been barred from running, mainly due to past convictions. In 2018, the former president was sentenced in absentia to a 20-year jail term over the looting of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) during the country’s post-election crisis.

Last December, the governing Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party nominated Ouattara for a fourth term as president. So far, Ouattara has refused to say whether he intends to run, triggering concerns among Ivorians, many of whom feel the president has outstayed his welcome. Analysts see the party’s nomination as setting the stage for his eventual candidature, however.

Analysts also say there is widespread sympathy for the young military leaders who seized power in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, and who have maintained a hostile stance towards France, unlike Ouattara.

What is the popular view of Ouattara?

He has been praised for overseeing rapid economic stability in the last decade and a half, which has made the country the regional economic hub.

Ouattara is also credited with bringing some level of political peace to the country. In 2023, he welcomed back Gbagbo, who had been living in Brussels since his 2021 ICC acquittal. Since then, election campaigns have not been as inflamed as they were in the 2000s when Gbagbo played on ethnic sentiments to incite opposition to Ouattara, whose father was originally from Burkina Faso.

However, Ouattara’s critics accuse him of fighting to hold onto power unconstitutionally. Some also accuse him of coercing state institutions into railroading his political opponents, including in the latest case involving Thiam.

His closeness with France, which is increasingly viewed as arrogant and neo-colonialistic, particularly by younger people across Francophone West Africa, has not won the president any favour from the country’s significant under-35 population.

Who is Tidjane Thiam, and why has he been barred from the elections?

Thiam, 62, is a prominent politician and businessman in Ivorian political circles. He is a nephew of the revered Houphouet-Boigny and was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam to France’s prestigious Polytechnique engineering school. He returned from France to serve as a minister of planning and development from 1998 until 1999, when a coup d’etat collapsed the civilian government, and the army took control of the country.

Thiam declined a cabinet position offered by the military government and left the country. He went on to take high-profile positions, first as the chief executive of the UK insurance group, Prudential, and then as head of global investment bank Credit Suisse. A corporate espionage scandal at the bank led to his resignation in 2020 after a colleague accused Thiam of spying on him. Thiam was cleared of any involvement.

After returning to Ivory Coast in 2022, Thiam re-entered politics and rejoined the Democratic Party (PDCI), the former governing party which held power from independence in 1960 until the 1999 coup d’etat, and which is now the major opposition party.

In December 2023, the party’s delegates overwhelmingly voted for Thiam to be the next leader following the death of former head and ex-President Henri Konan Bedie. At the time, PDCI officials said Thiam represented a breath of fresh air for the country’s politics, and many young people appeared ready to back him as the next president.

But his ambitions came to a halt on April 22 when a judge ordered his name be struck off the list of contenders because Thiam had taken French nationality in 1987 and automatically lost Ivorian citizenship according to the country’s laws.

Although the politician renounced his French nationality in February this year, the court ruled he had not done so before registering himself on the electoral roll in 2022, and was thus ineligible to be the party leader, a presidential candidate, or even a voter.

Thiam and his lawyers argued that the law is inconsistent. Ivorian footballers on the country’s national team, Thiam pointed out in one interview with reporters, are mostly also French nationals, but face no restrictions on holding Ivorian nationality. “The bottom line is, I was born Ivorian,” Thiam told the BBC in an interview, accusing the government of trying to block what he said is his party’s likely success in this year’s elections.

Will Thiam be able to stand and who else is standing?

It is unclear if Thiam can legally make his way back onto the candidate list, but he is trying.

In May, he resigned as PDCI president and was almost immediately re-elected with 99 percent of the vote. He has yet to reveal if he will attempt to re-register as a candidate, but has promised to keep up the fight.

Thiam has pledged to attract industrial investment to the country as he once did as minister, and to remove the country from the France-backed CFA currency economy that comprises West and Central African countries formerly colonised by France, and sees their currencies pegged to the euro.

Meanwhile, other strong candidates include Pascal Affi N’Guessan, 67, a former prime minister and close ally of Gbagbo, who will represent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).

Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady who is now divorced from Gbagbo, will also run, as the nominee for the Movement of the Capable Generations. She was sentenced to a 20-year term in 2015 on charges of undermining state security, but benefitted from an amnesty law to foster national reconciliation later in 2018.

US President Trump’s relentless attacks on institutions, the rule of law and the press have left many fearing for the future of American democracy. So is the United States sliding into authoritarianism?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to one of the pre-eminent historians of fascism, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, Ruth Ben-Ghiat.