WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the recent coup in Gabon:
“The coup in Gabon after President Bongo’s disputed re-election is the ninth military takeover in Africa in three years. Meanwhile, the State Department has not formally declared last month’s ouster of Niger’s President Bazoum a coup, leaving our regional friends unsure how the Biden Administration will match its abundant rhetoric about democracy with corresponding action. The United States must act more decisively with our like-minded African partners to articulate and implement a clear strategy, appropriately resourced, that advances responsive democratic governance, reverses this trend of military-led coups, and challenges the predatory influence of autocratic Russia and China in Africa.”
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