On December 22, 1965 General Christophe Soglo abolished the fifty day civilian transition and took power in Dahomey directly, deposing interim head of state Tahirou Congacou. After Soglo forced Apithy and Ahomadegbe to resign in late November, the constitution had passed the presidency provisionally to Congacou, the National Assembly president, who formed a small caretaker cabinet on December 1 and was charged with organizing a new presidential election within fifty days. Dissatisfied with Congacou's handling of the transition, and unwilling to see the discredited civilian politicians return through the planned poll, Soglo, promoted to general in February 1964, swept away the provisional government after just three weeks and assumed the presidency himself, becoming Dahomey's fifth head of state since independence.
He set up a National Renovation Committee to repair the economy and finances and ruled under a military government until December 17, 1967, when younger officers led by Maurice Kouandete overthrew him. This second Soglo seizure, three weeks after the first, was part of the run of five successful coups that made Dahomey the African record holder for coups between 1963 and 1972.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Interim head of state Tahirou Congacou, deposed on December 22, 1965 after roughly three weeks in the provisional presidency; he was not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Tahirou Congacou (interim head of state, deposed)
Christophe Soglo (general and army chief who took power directly)
The National Renovation Committee (body Soglo set up to run the country)
Sources
As the interim head of state, Congacou exercised power and was organizing the presidential election when he was deposed in a coup de theatre: Christophe Soglo, promoted to general in the meantime, organized another coup and retook power on 22 December 1965, becoming the fifth president of independent Dahomey.
SOURCE REVIEWEDAfrichevalier, Benin: Radioscopie des coups d'Etat de 1963 a 1972open source ↗
After forcing Apithy and Ahomadegbe to resign on 29 November 1965, National Assembly president Tahirou Congacou took the powers of the president and formed a restricted five member cabinet, but General Soglo was dissatisfied with Congacou's actions and removed him from power on 22 December 1965, taking back the presidency until 17 December 1967, when young army officers led by Major Maurice Kouandete overthrew him.
A Beninese account records that Congacou became interim president on 29 November 1965, formed a provisional government on 1 December 1965 with a maximum of 50 days to organize the presidential election, but spent only 21 days in charge before the army chief of staff swept away his provisional government on 22 December 1965 and retook power, the general assuming the withdrawal of power from civilians he deemed incapable and irresponsible.
SOURCE REVIEWEDSRTB, Les chefs d'Etat du Benin depuis 1960open source ↗
A South African History Online account records that the coalition of Apithy and Ahomadegbe that had replaced Maga also broke down and Soglo staged another coup in November 1965, this time taking power himself, and that Soglo's government did not last, with northern officers disgruntled over his paring down of the military ousting him in December 1967.
SOURCE REVIEWEDSouth African History Online, Beninopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Paired record care: this December 22 record is Soglo deposing the interim Congacou and taking the presidency outright; the companion record 1965-11-29 covers the forced resignations of Apithy and Ahomadegbe three weeks earlier, and the two are distinct events. Some sources compress the sequence by dating Soglo's assumption of power to November 1965 when he forced the resignations, but the constitution's interim mechanism and the December 22 removal of Congacou are the precise events the dataset separates. Arc links: back to the November 29 companion and to Soglo's 1963-10-28 first coup (batch 15); forward to the December 1967 Kouandete coup that ended Soglo's rule. This is the second Benin pair enriched three weeks apart, mirroring the 1963 and 1964 Dahomey sequence.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Interim head of state Tahirou Congacou, deposed on December 22, 1965 after roughly three weeks in the provisional presidency; he was not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Army Group Seizes Control in Dahomey,” December 18, 1967
“Fatal to Governments,” by Alfred Friendly Jr., December 19, 1967
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →