Cote d'Ivoire, 2002 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 19 September 2002 dissident soldiers launched a coup attempt against President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, a failed putsch that ignited the First Ivorian Civil War and tore the once stable country in two. The plotters, many of them soldiers facing demobilization who had been loyal to the former juntai leader Robert Guei, staged simultaneous armed attacks in Abidjan, the capital Yamoussoukro, and the northern city of Bouake, aiming to seize power. In Abidjan, government forces loyal to Gbagbo repelled the assault and retained control of the south, but the rebels, organizing as the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire under Guillaume Soro, seized and held Bouake and the entire northern half of the country.

Robert Guei was killed at the outset, along with the interior minister. The failed coup thus hardened into a rebellion and then a civil war that split Cote d'Ivoire between the government held, largely Christian south and the rebel held, largely Muslim north, drawing in French and later United Nations peacekeepers. The division, rooted in disputes over citizenship, ethnicity, and the exclusion of the northern leader Alassane Ouattara, would fester for years.