Cote d'Ivoire, 2000 — popular revolt
Event Summary
On 25 October 2000 the military ruler of Cote d'Ivoire, General Robert Guei, fled the capital as a popular revolt overturned his attempt to steal the presidential election from Laurent Gbagbo. Guei had taken power in the December 1999 coup and barred his main rivals, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara, from the 22 October vote, leaving Gbagbo of the Ivorian Popular Front as the only significant challenger. When early results showed Gbagbo winning, Guei dissolved the electoral commission and proclaimed himself the victor.
Tens of thousands of protesters poured into Abidjan on 24 and 25 October; Guei's Presidential Guard opened fire, killing scores, but the military and police then abandoned him. On 25 October Guei fled by helicopter, reportedly toward the Liberian border, and Gbagbo declared himself president the same day. The violence did not end there: the next day Ouattara's supporters, angry that he had been barred, took to the streets and were met by gendarmes and pro-Gbagbo mobs, and a mass grave of dozens of RDR supporters was later found at Yopougon.
Guei withdrew to his home region and was killed in September 2002 at the start of the civil war.
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
43710252000
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Robert Guei, junta leader who fled the capital by helicopter after trying to annul the election.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
New York Times
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 →