Chad, 1989 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On or around 1 April 1989 a coup was attempted in Chad against President Hissene Habre, mounted by senior figures within his own regime, most notably his army commander in chief Idriss Deby along with the interior minister Mahamat Itno and the security chief Hassan Djamous. The plot grew out of ethnic and factional tensions within Habre's government, particularly resentment among the Zaghawa group to which Deby and Djamous belonged. When the conspiracyi was uncovered, Habre moved ruthlessly: Itno was arrested and reportedly killed, and Djamous was captured and killed, while Deby escaped, fleeing eastward and eventually into Sudan.

From exile Deby organized the Patriotic Salvation Movement and built an insurgency, backed by Libya and Sudan, against Habre's increasingly isolated and brutal rule. Less than two years later, in December 1990, Deby's forces swept into the capital N'Djamena and overthrew Habre, who fled into exile in Senegal, where he was decades later convicted of crimes against humanity. Deby then seized power and went on to rule Chad for thirty years until his death in 2021.