AP PHOTOS: 2023 was marked by coups and a Moroccan earthquake on the African continent
Ngwiza Khumbulani Moyo, a vintage collector holds an old radio set outside his home in Bulawayo, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. According to a survey by Afrobarometer, radio is “overwhelmingly” the most common source of news in Africa. About 68% of respondents said they tune in at least a few times a week, compared to about 40% who said they use social media and the internet. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Reports of gunfire in the capital, followed by a television announcement that the president has been deposed by mutinous soldiers. The increasingly familiar storyline unfolded again this year in Africa — first in Niger and then in Gabon.
The resurgence of military coups renewed concerns about democracy backsliding on the continent and also underscored shifting regional alliances at a time when international peacekeeping efforts waned.
Two thousand twenty-three also brought utter devastation when a rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco in September, damaging thousands of villages in the mountains south of Marrakech and killing nearly 3,000 people.
The earthquake and several aftershocks left people and animals buried underneath mud and cinderblock for days as crews raced up narrow, windy roads to supply rescue and aid efforts. Morocco ultimately accepted search-and-rescue assistance from only four countries — Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the United Kingdom — and rebuffed other offers, including from France and the United States. The decision brought questions and criticism as villagers awaited help in the immediate hours after the earthquake.
And 2023 also was marked by several high profile visitors to the continent. Pope Francis journeyed to Congo and South Sudan where he focused on victims of war.
In Kenya, King Charles III expressed “greatest sorrow and the deepest regret” for the violence of the colonial era, though he didn’t explicitly apologize for Britain’s actions in its former colony as many had wanted.
Elections in Africa began with a promising start in February, with little violence surrounding a much anticipated vote in Nigeria. Africa’s most populous nation elected Bola Tinubu, though he ultimately won with less than 50% of the vote. Still, observers largely described the election as an improvement from 2019.
Then in August, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of a disputed election. Both Western and African observers questioned the credibility of the vote, citing an atmosphere of intimidation ahead of the election.
An atheist stands against the sunset sky in Kano Nigeria Friday, July 14, 2023. Nonbelievers in Nigeria said they perennially have been treated as second-class citizens in the deeply religious country whose 210 million population is almost evenly divided between Christians dominant in the south and Muslims who are the majority in the north. Some nonbelievers say threats and attacks have worsened in the north since the leader of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, Mubarak Bala, was arrested and later jailed for blasphemy. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
That same month the president of Gabon was deposed in a coup just hours after officials had announced his re-election. It came only a month after Niger’s leader was overthrown by mutinous soldiers, becoming the third Sahelian state under the rule of a military junta.
The ripple of coups put governments across the region on high alert: Authorities in Sierra Leone arrested more than a dozen people in November, accusing them of launching a failed coup attempt against the president, who had been re-elected only months earlier.
In Senegal, uncertainty over President Macky Sall’s political future fueled weeks of violent protests in the streets. While he ended years of speculation by declaring he would not seek a third term in office, opposition supporters continued to accuse his government of jailing their leader Ousmane Sonko to block his candidacy.
A customer buying a small bag of melon seeds discusses how he will send a bank transfer to the street seller, right, due to the crisis in the supply of banknotes, at the bi-weekly Karmo street market in Abuja, Nigeria Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Writing on t-shirt in Pidgin reads “If you no get money, hide your face” translating to English as “If you don’t have money, leave”. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
People sing as the ride on a new Lagos blue line train service in Lagos, Nigeria, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. Lagos state government on Monday, began its 13km (9 miles) metro blue line services to the public . Officials say The Blue Line Rail is one of the rail projects designed to make Lagos a fully interconnected city and it will transform the city’s transport system. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
Twenty twenty-three also marked the beginning of the end for the enormous U.N. peacekeeping missions in both Mali and Congo. Leaders of both countries have said that the blue helmets ultimately failed in their efforts to bring about peace.
Congo formally began the departure process by signing agreements with the U.N. to end the mission there after two decades. In Mali, peacekeepers began withdrawing from posts across the north after a decade-long presence. Not long after, the Malian military seized control of the rebel stronghold town of Kidal for the first time since 2012.
Congo also prepared for a Dec. 20 presidential election with incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi facing a familiar field of competitors led by Martin Fayulu and Moise Katumbi. Ongoing violence in the country’s embattled east, however, threatened to derail voting in areas under the control of M23 rebels. Civilians in the region also faced mounting attacks from ADF militants claiming links to the Islamic State group.
Burkinabe actress Maimouna Ndiaye poses for a photo after an interview in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. “We only have FESPACO left to prevent us from thinking about what’s going on,” said Ndiaye, who has four submissions in this year’s competition. “This is the event that must not be cancelled no matter the situation.” (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia)
Participants in the Black Star Polo competition, held at the University of Ghana in Accra, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, shower before their game. The Awutu Winton Water Polo Club has seven teams representing three regions of Ghana. Former water polo pro Prince Asante is training young players in the sport in his father’s homeland of Ghana, where swimming pools are rare and the ocean is seen as dangerous. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Ghanaian soldiers conduct combat drills during Flintlock 2023 at Sogakope beach resort, Ghana, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. As extremist violence in West Africa’s Sahel region spreads south toward coastal states, the United States military has launched its annual military training exercise which will help armies contain the jihadi threat. Soldiers from several African countries are being trained in counter-insurgency tactics as part of the annual U.S.-led exercise known as Flintlock. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Deputy Chief of Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Thoi Chany Reat attends a ceremony for soldiers from the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) preparing to join the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) in Congo, at the airport in Juba, South Sudan Monday, April 3, 2023. A United Nations-backed panel of investigators alleges in a new report that several officials in South Sudan including Reat have perpetrated serious human rights violations and should be held accountable for their crimes. (AP Photo/Samir Bol)
Soldiers from the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) prepare to board a flight to transport them to eastern Congo, where they are due to operate as part of the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF), at the airport in Juba, South Sudan Monday, April 3, 2023. East African regional forces have regained control of Bunagana, a strategic town in eastern Congo that had been held by M23 rebels for more than nine months, a spokesman for the regional force said Monday. (AP Photo/Samir Bol)
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses members of the defence force during the Armed Forces Day in Richards Bay, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. The parade took place as a naval exercise was underway off the east coast of the country with Russian and Chinese navies. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Students attend a class at the Seipone Secondary School in the rural village of Ga-Mashashane, near Polokwane, South Africa, Thursday May 4, 2023. Human rights groups have been pressuring the government for a decade to get rid of pit toilets in schools, with the issue given added urgency by several tragic cases of young children falling into the pits and drowning. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
A miner walks at the entrance of a goldmine shaft in Springs, South Africa, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. A group of miners from an unregistered, rival union are holding around 500 of their colleagues underground for the second day at the mine over a union dispute. Some 15 miners have been injured in scuffles, the head of the mine said on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
Curtains and sheets used by people trying to flee one of South Africa’s deadliest inner-city fires dangle from windows, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Emergency services teams have left the scene of one of South Africa’s deadliest inner-city fires as pathologists faced the grisly task Friday of identifying dozens of charred bodies and some separate body parts that had been transported to several mortuaries across the city of Johannesburg. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man and woman walks over puddled water along a street from an overflowing reservoir in Hamanskraal, Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, May 26, 2023. Health authorities are yet to confirm the exact source of the cholera outbreak, but poor waste water management and local government instability in South Africa’s capital city have been blamed for the situation. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
A riot policeman reloads a teargas grenade launcher during clashes with protesters in the Kibera area of Nairobi, Kenya July 19, 2023. The United States is praising Kenya’s interest in leading a multinational force in Haiti. But weeks ago, the U.S. openly warned Kenyan police officers against violent abuses. Now 1,000 of those police officers might head to Haiti to take on gang warfare. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga,)
A member of the security forces uses his mobile phone torch to inspect a bedroom inside the Lhubiriha Secondary School following an attack on the school on Saturday, in Mpondwe, Uganda Sunday, June 18, 2023, near the border with Congo. Ugandan authorities have recovered the bodies of 41 people including 38 students who were burned, shot or hacked to death after suspected rebels attacked the school, according to the local mayor. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Somali refugee children cover as a dust storm moves across the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, Thursday, July 13, 2023. One of the world’s largest refugee camps offers a stark example of the global food security crisis with thousands of people fleeing Somalia in recent months to escape drought and extremism but finding little to eat when they arrive at the Dadaab camp in neighboring Kenya. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
In Senegal, uncertainty over President Macky Sall’s political future fueled weeks of violent protests in the streets. While he ended years of speculation by declaring he would not seek a third term in office, opposition supporters continued to accuse his government of jailing their leader Ousmane Sonko to block his candidacy.
Twenty twenty-three also marked the beginning of the end for the enormous U.N. peacekeeping missions in both Mali and Congo. Leaders of both countries have said that the blue helmets ultimately failed in their efforts to bring about peace.
Shukri Mohamed Ibrahim, who fled amid a drought with her family, stands in makeshift camp for displaced people, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia on Thursday, Sept, 28, 2023. The worst drought in more than 50 years scorched the once-fertile pastures her family relied on, leaving them barren. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
A man carrying his bicycle crosses through a flooded Muuoni River, where 8 people are said to have drowned overnight while crossing the river at Mukaa area, Makueni county, Kenya’s Eastern region, Friday Nov. 24, 2023. Flood-related death toll is going higher everyday as heavy rains continue to pound across East Africa. (AP Photo)
Survivors walk amidst debris next to destroyed buildings in the aftermath of floods in the village of Nyamukubi, South Kivu province, in Congo Monday, May 8, 2023. The death toll from floods in eastern Congo climbed to several hundred people as of Sunday, according to a local official. (AP Photo/Justin Kabumba)
The 42-year-old mother of four who was raped in the Bulengo displacement camp where she had fled war in eastern Congo poses for a photograph Aug. 23, 2023. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been displaced over the past year in eastern Congo amid fighting by more than 130 armed groups. That leaves them vulnerable to sexual assault, which is on the rise. French aid group Doctors Without Borders says more than twice as many women in recent months have sought treatment for sexual assault in some displacement camps outside the eastern city of Goma. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Arrested members of the Wazalendo sect are sat and lined up in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. More than 40 people died and dozens were injured in clashes in the Congolese city of Goma between protesters from the Wazalendo religious sect and the armed forces, national authorities said. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A priest holds a sacrament bowl showing a photograph of Pope Francis at a Holy Mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Pope Francis is in South Sudan on the final day of a six-day trip that started in Congo, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for centuries. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Morning service concludes in the annex of the Cathedral Notre Dame du Congo in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sunday Jan. 29, 2023. The cathedral is being prepared for Pope Francis’ visit to Congo and South Sudan for a six-day trip starting Jan, 31, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for centuries. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A taxi carrying a casket navigates through heavy traffic following the departure of Pope Francis from Kinshasa, Congo, Friday Feb. 3, 2023. Francis is in Congo and South Sudan for a six-day trip, hoping to bring comfort and encouragement to two countries that have been riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for centuries. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
An elderly freed prisoner celebrates after he was released from Harare Central Prison in Harare, Friday, May, 19, 2023. Zimbabwe has begun releasing more than 4,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty that authorities say will help ease congestion in some overcrowded jails. About 800 prisoners were on Friday released from Harare Central Prison and Chikurubi Maximum Prison in the capital, Harare, according to Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
A woman shows a selection of sex toys she uses, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, June, 24, 2023. Zimbabwean woman Sitabile Dewa is challenging a sex toys ban in the country which she describes in court papers filed in March as “archaic” and “repressive” laws used to arrest women for having sex toys. Her court challenge - a bold act in a society where females are usually shamed for being openly sexual - highlights the struggles endured by Zimbabwean women battling to attain sexual freedom. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
People and dogs dig through the rubble of a home that was damaged by an earthquake, in the village of Tafeghaghte, near Marrakech, Morocco, Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. Rescue crews expanded their efforts on Monday as the earthquake’s death toll continued to climb to more than 2,400 and displaced people worried about where to find shelter. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
Supporters of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum gather in his support in Niamey, Niger, Wednesday July 26 2023. Governing bodies in Africa condemned what they characterized as a coup attempt Wednesday against Niger’s president, whose official Twitter account reported that elements of the presidential guard engaged in an “anti-Republican demonstration” and tried to obtain the support of other security forces. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)
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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.