Military coups are back in fashion in Africa. There have been over 200 attempted coups in the continent since 1960, about half of them successful, but in the past two decades they had dropped to only two a year. Last year saw six, however, and there have been two already this year. The latest in Guinea-Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest and least well regarded of Africa's 54 countries -- it even has to share the name with its bigger neighbour Guinea, more distant Equatorial Guinea, and very distant Papua New Guinea. But the former Portuguese colony on the West African coast has two distinctions: it has seen nine coups or attempted coups since 1980, and it is the continent's leading "narco-state".
