Chad, 1980 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Chad on 22 March 1980 amid the collapse of the central state into open factional warfare, during the period when the fragile transitional government pitted President Goukouni Oueddei against his defense minister and rival Hissene Habre. The power-sharing arrangement that had followed the breakdown of Felix Malloum's rule gave way in 1980 to the Second Battle of N'Djamena, a ferocious struggle for the capital between Goukouni's forces, backed by Libya, and Habre's Armed Forces of the North. The fighting that erupted in March 1980 and raged for months devastated N'Djamena and effectively destroyed what remained of unified national authority.
Goukouni, with decisive Libyan military intervention, drove Habre's forces out of the capital by the end of 1980, but Habre regrouped and, with a shift in external backing, returned to capture N'Djamena and seize power in 1982, continuing Chad's long agony of civil war and foreign intervention.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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:
- Cline Center id
48303221980
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Goukouni Oueddei held the capital in the March 1980 fighting with Libyan help, but Habre seized power in 1982.
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
New York Times
Pakistan Horizon, Vol. 37, No. 3 pp. 20-36
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 →