Benin, 1972 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Benin, then called Dahomey, on 23 February 1972, during the unstable period of the Presidential Council, a rotating three-man executive shared among the veteran rivals Hubert Maga, Justin Ahomadegbe, and Sourou Migan Apithy, set up to contain Dahomey's chronic regional and ethnic divisions. On 23 February 1972 Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Kouandete, a serial coup maker who had seized power before, attempted yet another coup, this time against the head of the Presidential Council. The attempt failed and Kouandete was arrested and sentenced.
The episode underscored the deep instability of Dahomean politics, which had seen repeated military interventions since independence. Later that year, on 26 October 1972, a more decisive coup led by Major Mathieu Kerekou overthrew the Presidential Council entirely, ending the era of the old civilian rivals and beginning Kerekou's long Marxist Leninist rule, during which the country was renamed Benin.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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:
- Cline Center id
43402231972- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-434-1972-02-23
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Presidential Council survived Kouandete's February 1972 coup attempt but was overthrown by Kerekou that October.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Luttwak
Wikipedia
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 →