On February 12, 1979, Prime Minister Hissène Habré ordered his FAN (Forces Armées du Nord) fighters to attack government forces in the capital N'Djamena, targeting the government of President Félix Malloum, who had headed Chad's Supreme Military Council since 1975. The French garrison stationed in the city did not intervene, and the assault drove Malloum from power; he went into retirement under French protection while remnants of the government's FAT army retreated south. The fighting triggered wider ethnic and communal violence, with more than 10,000 people reported killed across southern Chad by mid-March.
A rival northern rebel faction led by Goukouni Oueddei also entered N'Djamena on February 22, and by March 23, 1979 Goukouni had been installed as interim head of state; he was later acclaimed president of the Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT), formed November 10, 1979, in which Habré served as Defense Minister.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Félix Malloum, President of Chad / Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (CSM)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Hissène Habré (FAN commander / Prime Minister, attacking force leader)
Félix Malloum (President / Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, targeted leader)
Goukouni Oueddei (FAP commander, rival rebel leader who became interim head of state)
Sources
Félix Malloum, a former government critic imprisoned under Tombalbaye, had proclaimed himself head of the Supreme Military Council (CSM), seizing power in 1975, and remained Chad's head of state going into the February 1979 crisis.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, "Civil War in Chad" (text drawn from Library of Congress Country Study)open source ↗
On February 12, 1979, Prime Minister Hissène Habré ordered his FAN (Forces Armées du Nord) fighters to attack in N'Djamena, appealing to the city's Muslim and Arab communities for support.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, "Civil War in Chad"open source ↗
The French garrison in N'Djamena did not intervene in the fighting; FAN forces drove Malloum from power into retirement under French protection and pushed the remnants of the government's FAT army south.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, "Civil War in Chad"open source ↗
The fighting set off wider ethnic and communal violence; by mid-March 1979 more than 10,000 people were reported to have died in violence across southern Chad.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, "Civil War in Chad"open source ↗
On February 22, 1979, a rival northern rebel faction, Goukouni Oueddei's FAP (Forces Armées Populaires), also entered the capital.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, "Civil War in Chad"open source ↗
Goukouni Oueddei was installed as interim Chadian head of state on March 23, 1979, and was subsequently acclaimed president of the Transitional Government of National Unity (GUNT) formed on November 10, 1979.
GUNT's two most important leaders were Goukouni Oueddei and Hissène Habré, former allies from FROLINAT's Second Liberation Army; Habré served as Defense Minister in the new government while Goukouni served as president.
According to Wikipedia's "Battle of N'Djamena (1979)" article, the urban fighting continued for three days until Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry mediated a ceasefire between Habré and Malloum on February 15, 1979.
INDIRECT CITATIONWikipedia, citing Meredith, Martin, The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence, 2005open source ↗
Editorial Note
Primary sourcing came from GlobalSecurity.org's "Civil War in Chad" and "Goukouni Oueddei" pages, which reproduce/derive from the U.S. Library of Congress Country Study "Chad: A Country Study" (Thomas Collelo, ed.); these were directly fetched and quoted verbatim this session. Wikipedia's dedicated "Battle of N'Djamena (1979)" article could be fetched but its citations (Meredith 2005; Collelo 1990; Hollick 1982 in The World Today) could not be independently accessed this session, so the 3-day duration and the specific claim of Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry mediating the February 15 ceasefire are labeled CHAIN only. Note a disagreement between two Wikipedia articles on who mediated the ceasefire: the "Battle of N'Djamena (1979)" article (citing Meredith) names Sudan's Nimeiry, while the separate "Chadian Civil War (1965–1979)" article (citing different footnotes) instead describes French troops maintaining order with Nigerian mediators attempting a settlement — I could not resolve this discrepancy against a primary source and report it here rather than silently picking one. Britannica's Hissène Habré and Chad "Civil war" pages were fetched but returned only navigation content, not substantive text, so they could not be used as sources. | Re-fetched both GlobalSecurity.org source pages (chad2.htm and cd-goukouni.htm) and the Wikipedia Battle of N'Djamena (1979) article. All 7 VERIFIED facts have quotes that appear verbatim on the live, real source pages and fairly represent the source text. The 1 CHAIN fact (Nimeiry mediation, Meredith 2005 citation) is genuinely present on Wikipedia as described. target_leader is supported (source page uses both 'head of the Supreme Military Council' and 'Malloum's presidency,' justifying the paraphrase). Summary contains no claims beyond the sourced facts. No fabrication, dead links, or misquotes found; nothing required downgrading.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Félix Malloum, President of Chad / Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (CSM).
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
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
“Chad coup attempt foiled: N’Djamena,” February 14, 1979
The Globe and Mail
“Chad Troops Resist Coup Bid,” February 13, 1979
New York Times
“Coup Is Apparently Thwarted in Chad,” February 13, 1979
Washington Post
“Troops Loyal to Premier, President Battle in Chad,” February 13, 1979
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 →