West African countries show how decades of working together build peace, and stop wars breaking out

By Abubakar Abubakar Usman, Researcher, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia)

Africa is often portrayed as a continent ravaged by war, terrorism, poverty and political instability. But over the past five decades few violent conflicts have occurred between states. In Europe, for comparison, there have been more than 25 inter-state conflicts since 1945.

It’s true that Africa has seen 214 coups, the most of any region; 106 have been successful. Out of 54 countries on the African continent, 45 have had at least one coup…

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