UPSC Prelims 2022 Q87: Chad, Guinea, Lebanon, Tunisia in News
Consider the following pairs:
Country : Important reason for being in the news recently
1. Chad : Setting up of permanent military base by China
2. Guinea : Suspension of Constitution and Government by military
3. Lebanon : Severe and prolonged economic depression
4. Tunisia : Suspension of Parliament by President
How many pairs given above are correctly matched?
- Only one pair
- Only two pairs
- Only three pairs
- All four pairs
Answer: (c) Only three pairs
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — China has no military base in Chad, which is a landlocked country in the Sahel. China's only acknowledged overseas military base is in Djibouti, on the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. It opened on 1 August 2017, and Beijing calls it a logistics support facility. In 2021 Chad was in the news for a different reason: President Idriss Déby died in April 2021 and a Transitional Military Council led by his son took power.
- 2: correct — On 5 September 2021, a military group led by Col. Mamady Doumbouya overthrew President Alpha Condé. The group called itself the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development (CNRD). It suspended the constitution and dissolved the government and other institutions. Doumbouya was sworn in as transitional president on 1 October 2021.
- 3: correct — The World Bank's Spring 2021 Lebanon Economic Monitor was titled 'Lebanon Sinking (to the Top 3)'. It said Lebanon's crisis was likely to rank among the top 10, and possibly the top 3, most severe crisis episodes worldwide since the mid-19th century. The next edition (Fall 2021) called it a 'Deliberate Depression', blaming policy inaction for its length and depth.
- 4: correct — On 25 July 2021, President Kais Saied invoked an emergency clause of the constitution. He suspended Parliament, dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and took over executive powers. He later extended the suspension indefinitely and formally dissolved Parliament in March 2022.
How to eliminate
This question mostly tests whether you followed current affairs in 2021–22. Pure logic will not get you far. One thing helps: of the four pairs, only Statement 1 is a claim about a foreign power. The other three describe events inside the country itself. China's overseas base is a standard fact: there is one, and it is in Djibouti (2017). A permanent Chinese base anywhere else would have been major world news. If you know this, you can rule out Statement 1 and 'all four pairs'. Statements 2 and 4 were both widely reported in 2021, as a coup in Guinea and a 'self-coup' in Tunisia. Lebanon's collapse after the August 2020 Beirut port explosion was in the news throughout the year. A likely trap is the name 'Guinea'. In December 2021 there were media reports that China wanted a naval facility in Equatorial Guinea, a different country on the Atlantic coast. Facts to remember: Djibouti is China's only overseas base; Guinea had a coup in September 2021; Tunisia's Parliament was suspended on 25 July 2021; the World Bank ranked Lebanon's crisis among the 'top 3' since the 1850s.
Know more
Africa's 'coup belt' and democratic backsliding (2020–22)
Between 2020 and 2022, Africa saw its largest wave of unconstitutional changes of government in decades. Most were in the Sahel and West Africa. Regional bodies such as ECOWAS and the African Union usually suspended the country's membership.
| Country | Year | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Mali | 2020, 2021 | Two military coups |
| Chad | 2021 | Military council took over after President Déby's death |
| Guinea | 2021 | Col. Doumbouya ousted Alpha Condé; constitution suspended |
| Sudan | 2021 | Military dissolved the civilian-military transitional government |
| Burkina Faso | 2022 | Two coups in one year |
A self-coup (autogolpe) is different from a military coup. In a self-coup, an elected leader uses or stretches constitutional powers to shut out other institutions. Tunisia in 2021 is the standard example. Saied used an emergency clause to suspend Parliament and then ruled by decree. In July 2022, a referendum approved a new constitution that returned Tunisia to a presidential system. Tunisia had been the main success story of the 2011 Arab Spring.
Lebanon's crisis combined several shocks: a sovereign default in March 2020, a banking collapse, the Beirut port explosion of August 2020, and political deadlock. The World Bank called it a 'deliberate depression' because the main cause was policy inaction, not a lack of solutions.
China's overseas military presence: Djibouti (2017) is China's only acknowledged overseas base. It sits on the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and supports anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. Analysts often discuss it under the 'string of pearls' idea.
In the news
Three of the pairs come from 2021 headlines: the 25 July 2021 suspension of Tunisia's Parliament, the 5 September 2021 coup in Guinea, and the World Bank's mid-2021 report ranking Lebanon's crisis among the worst since the 1850s. The Chad–China pair seems to have been the distractor. Chad itself was in the news in 2021 because the military took over after President Déby died.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Sahel: Chad lies in the Sahel, the region at the centre of the 2020–22 coup wave that the Chad and Guinea pairs draw on.
- Gulf of Aden: China's Djibouti base overlooks the Gulf of Aden; knowing where China actually has a base is how you test the Chad pair.