The Coup
GLA Battle Theme 1
Chant

A little something I had rolling around the back of my mind for a while now and had sketched the basic outline of months ago finally acted upon (or whatever); it's the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea with helicopters and jets flying over while a giant smoke plume looms large. It's all supposed to be a big parallel to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the First Gulf War as a whole, as well as the Second to a lesser extent. I mentioned this in my description for the Congolese Fields drawing I did last year but I think it might need a repeating (in greater detail, of course). Admittedly, I kind of screwed up with painting here, due to one or two of my Aquash brushes putting down too much water, causing it to overflow certain parts of the painting. Doesn't help that I left the original pencil strokes there instead of drawing them over with a Sakura pen like I did with my canyon painting, whoops.

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The Mbomou War between Zaire and the Central African Empire ended in a white peace in 1988, with hundreds of thousands dead and well over a million civilians displaced and nothing to show for it but devastation on many fronts: sapient, environmental, and economic. The Empire was massively in-debt both due to the war costs and the expensive projects Emperor Bokassa had initiated, such as the successful efforts to revitalize Lake Chad or the expansion of Bangui Airport to accommodate the Tu-144 supersonic airliner. The Imperial government was desperately looking to pay off the debts and, with its oil industry in shambles after it was targeted by other nations looking to try to force the rogue Empire to cease its aggression, decided on the idea of invading and occupying neighboring Equatorial Guinea and using its oil facilities to get their economy back up and running. In the early morning hours of August 2, 1990, Imperial forces, on order from the Emperor himself, invaded Equatorial Guinea; some 50,000 ground troops, with supporting armor, artillery, and aircraft, entered Rio Muni (the mainland component of Equatorial Guinea) and swiftly occupied towns near the border such as Ebibeyin. At the same time, transport ships departed Douala, escorted by the few remaining Imperial warships, ferrying elite Imperial Guard soldiers and commandos, the latter of which were sent off on helicopters once the ships were in range of Bioko Island to capture key targets such as the Government Building (residence of Equatoguinean President Teodoro Obiang). The transports landed at the port and their passengers disembarked, who swiftly occupied the city and the entire island was deemed secure.

It would take almost a week to completely occupy the mainland side of the country, in spite of the poor state of the Equatoguinean Armed Forces. Scattered militia gave up some degree of resistance across the villages and dense jungles, giving the Imperial army more trouble than the supposedly-professional soldiers who mostly either surrendered in droves or dropped their weapons and fled in terror of their better-equipped and trained enemy. Over the port city of Bata, Mi-8 and LeO 330 Puma helicopters carried soldiers onto the rooftops of high-rise apartments, hotels, and office buildings while CAMCO Q-5, Su-17, and IAR-93 jets struck specific military targets, leaving plumes of smoke that could be seen from miles around. The city streets echoed with the thunderous cacophony of tank treads and truck wheels, as Hanzhong Type 57, Hanzhong Type 46, Hanzhong Type 50, T-72, Mk.IX Hampton, Type 17 Ki-Juyon, Super Beauregard, and AMX-50 tanks; Bobcat, BMP-1, Panhard Mle 61 VTT, Eengesa EE-11 Urutu, Chung Ming Type 51, and BTR-152 APCs; Panhard AML, Chung Ming Type 48, and M54 Commando armored cars; and DAC 443, Isuzu Type 34 and Type 15, ZIL-131, GAZ-66, ZIL-130, Ural-375D, Ural-4320, CAC Type 42, CAC Type 56, and CAC Type 63 trucks all rumbled downtown, making their presence known to the confused and terrified locals. By August 8, Equatorial Guinea was completely in Imperial hands and it was declared annexed as a territory of the Central African Empire, with Jean-Paul Ngoupande appointed as governor; President Obiang and all of his subordinates and lackeys were placed under house arrest and the Imperial military immediately began conscripting fit Equatoguineans in the hopes they would supplant losses sustained during the brutal war with Zaire (as well as replace the mercenaries who left once the fighting was over).

There was great public outcry and condemnations across the world in reaction to the invasion and occupation of Equatorial Guinea; more sanctions were heaped upon the Empire and Russia, France, and China placed arms embargoes against the ECA while member-nations of the Neutrality Protection Alliance (such as Odisha, Mirnapustny, and even neighboring Biafra) called for the Empire to withdraw its forces from Equatorial Guinea. Moreover by October, both the Confederate States of America and Great Britain had issued ultimatums: that the withdrawal should occur by January 15, 1991 or else the two nations would declare war. The League of Nations' Council passed Resolution 860 condemning the occupation and demanding that the ECA withdraw all forces deployed in Equatorial Guinea. After a series of failed negotiations, a coalition led by the CSA and Great Britain (consisting predominately of Entente member-nations, as well as several neighboring African countries) launched a military assault on the Central African Empire and the Centroafrican forces occupying Equatorial Guinea in mid-January 1991. On January 16, a massive campaign of aerial bombardment was conducted by Coalition air forces against targets in Kamerun, Central Africa, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea while fighters engaged the Imperial Air Force, which had yet to recover from the costs sustained from the war with Zaire. By February 1, the Imperial Air Force had almost been completely annihilated, with many surviving aircraft fleeing to neutral Nubia, Ethiopia, and Congo-Brazzaville to be repatriated. The ground war had begun on January 18 with the Imperials launching Scud missiles against Nigeria and Gabon, with the latter being subject to ground invasion on the 20th, as several armored and mechanized division crossed the border east of the Muni estuary, using the N5 highway to travel south. Their intended target was the capital of Libreville, in the hopes that it would eliminate Gabon as both an ally and a staging ground for Coalition forces. By February 2, they would eventually be stopped in the eastern suburbs of Libreville by the Gabonese Army in conjunction with Kongolese, Santomean, and Moroccan soldiers as well as Brazilian Imperial Marines and the air support of Gabonese, Royal Moroccan, Imperial Brazilian, French, Confederate, Royal Egyptian, Nigerian, and British Royal Air Forces.

Coalition forces, meanwhile, streaked across Nigeria's southeastern border on February 5, aimed south in order to cut off both the Imperial troops garrisoned in Equatorial Guinea as well as Douala. Spearheaded by the Confederate I Corps detached from the Army of Northern Virginia and the British II Corps, they penetrated through the deep jungles and muddy roads to pass east of Jaunde by the 8th, despite the heavy presence of Imperial troops around that city, and successfully reached the Gabonese border near Minvoul on the 10th. Once the encirclement was completed, the British and Confederates pushed west to Doula, aided by Syrian, Australian, Hejazi, Canadian, Japanese, Singaporeans, Portuguese, Sarawakian, Nigerian, New Zealander, Cuban, and Faibemian divisions and brigades, battling against Imperial Guard divisions and other elite mechanized troops attempting to counter-attack. In the dense jungles and on the farmlands of western Kamerun, much battle was had between Coalition forces and the Imperials, the rough terrain proving hazardous to both vehicles and infantry alike. Local Kamerunian soldiers took advantage of this however, at least those who had the eagerness for battle, for they used dug-out shelters and high hides to ambush and harass the Coalition; others preferred to surrender themselves to Coalition troops, rather than fighting a battle they had no interest in being mere conscripts fighting for a government they didn't believe in. The French, along with the Californians, Mexicans, Thais, Egyptians, Greeks, Armenians, Pontians, Filipinos, Somalians, Ivorians, Mughals, and Adelais, pushed their divisions east past Juande in order to provide a buffer against additional Imperial forces coming in from the east and north.

On the 16th, the Imperial divisions still stationed in continental Equatorial Guinea attempted to punch their way north via the P8 highway that lead away from Bata to Kribi. The soldiers mostly utilized civilian vehicles in addition to military trucks and armored vehicles but they were relentlessly strafed and bombed by Coalition aircraft, resulting in hundreds killed on a stretch of road that was dubbed 'Highway of Death'. The incident caused a fair bit of controversy in the nations that participated in those air strikes, namely the CSA and Great Britain with many claims circulating that there had been civilians among the soldiers in the convoy.

The Coalition reached Doula on the 15th, with brief fighting for control of the city, before they turned south to Bata, passing the ruined vehicles on the Highway of Death to reach Bata by the 18th. Equatorial Guinea was freed, as Confederate and Royal Marines landed on Bioko on the 2nd, liberating Malabo by the 3rd; there had been passive resistance to the occupation and some 150 Equatoguinean citizens were murdered by Imperial soldiers but there was an air of cynical apathy among many in the country, as they merely had gone from one corrupt dictatorship to another, if slightly more brutal.

With Equatorial Guinea liberated, the Coalition forces in the west headed east to join up with their allies in order to push on the Imperial capital of Bangui; by the 28th, Bangui had fallen after some not insignificant urban fighting. Emperor Bokassa was nowhere to be found, for he had fled into the hinterlands only a few days before but many government officials were captured, either still in the capital or had escaped and were attempting to flee out of the country. The Central African Empire had completely collapsed as Chadians and Kamerunians celebrated the Imperial defeat and prospect on the return of national sovereignty. A sarhunt was soon to begin to hunt down the Emperor and his son, the Crown Prince; meanwhile the remnants of the Imperial Guard shed their uniforms and took to the jungles and mountains, eager to carry on the fight against the foreign invaders. As Chad and Kamerun were trying to reestablish their autonomy, a coup was staged against President Obiang by members of his government, disgusted with his conduct during the invasion and occupation; he was tried before a local court before being thrown into the infamous Black Beach prison. An interim government was established to preside over the country until the next election and began entering negotiations with the Bupi locals on Bioko, who were eager to separate themselves from the dominant mainland.

While Bokassa and his son would eventually be found in hiding near Bobangui, chaos would ensue in Central Africa as the remaining Coalition forces tried to support efforts of establishing a new republican government that was badly resisted by many locals. An insurgency would ensue, supported by many who turned against the Coalition and their perceived meddling in the RCA's internal affairs; both this and the occupation would last until 2008 when the last Coalition soldiers would depart, effectively freeing Central Africa at last. However, the region as a whole would remain unstabilized for some time to come as for one, the collapse of the ECA would be cited by future historians as one of the primary reasons for the violent civil war that would ensue in Zaire in 1993.