Welcome to the Inquiry, I'm Charmaine Cozier, each week four expert witnesses, one question

and an answer.

It's late January 2022 in a West African country.

Fourteen men are on state TV delivering an important update about the future of the nation,

but the president and his government are missing.

The group are soldiers.

They gather around a desk wearing combat gear.

An officer wearing a green beret declares that the president has been removed from office

because the army has seized control of Bikina Faso.

This movement, which brings together all components of the defence and security forces,

has decided to put an end to the rule of Rochmark Christian Cabaret on this 24 January 2022.

The constitution is suspended and the government and parliament dissolved.

In the months before there were similar scenes in two other nearby countries, Marley and

Guinea also replaced their civilian leaders with military ones.

Those three recent attempts to topple governments succeeded in a part of the continent that

isn't a stranger to democracy.

So this week we're asking, why have military coups returned to West Africa?

Part one, the Kina Faso's coup.

This isn't the first military takeover in the country's recent history, or the second,

or even the third.

The Kina Faso had eight coups since their independence in 1958.

civilian powers have not always realised the aspirations of the people.

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