Africa is the only continent where every country has a total fertility rate above replacement levels and, as a result, is projected to grow to 2.4 billion people by 2050 and 4.2 billion by 2100, reaching nearly 40% of the global population.1 This demographic growth is expected to provide major opportunities for economic growth both in Africa and for outside players, but such growth can only occur under politically stable conditions. In August 2020, the military of Mali overthrew the government in a coup d’etat. Since then, in quick succession, four of Mali’s regional neighbors have experienced coup attempts, including successful ones in Guinea and Burkina Faso. The Central African Republic, meanwhile, has become a client state of Russia.2 This unprecedented wave of coups is a consequence of decisions made in Paris to pull back long-standing French troop deployments in French-speaking Africa.