Comoros, 1992 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

The dataset records an event coded as an attempted military coupi in the Comoros on 26 September 1992 against President Said Mohamed Djohar, who had come to power after the 1989 assassination of the longtime autocrat Ahmed Abdallah and the subsequent French pressured expulsion of the mercenary Bob Denard. Djohar's rule over the fractious Indian Ocean archipelago was weak and turbulent, plagued by economic crisis, political infighting, and the chronic instability that had made the Comoros notorious for coups and mercenary intrigue. In late September 1992 a coup was attempted against Djohar, reportedly involving military elements and figures linked to the sons of the assassinated president Abdallah, and it was suppressed, with the plotters arrested.

It was one of several attempts against Djohar during his troubled presidency. He survived this one but continued to govern amid instability, and his rule was finally ended in 1995 when Bob Denard returned in yet another mercenary coup, only for France to intervene militarily, capture Denard, and remove Djohar from effective power, continuing the Comoros' long cycle of coups and foreign intervention.