Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2004 — dissident coup attempt

Event Summary

The dataset records an event coded as an attempted dissident coupi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 28 March 2004, when armed men attacked military and government targets in the capital Kinshasa in a bid to destabilize the fragile transitional government of President Joseph Kabila. The DRC was then in the delicate early phase of its post war transition, following the devastating Second Congo War, under a power sharing arrangement that brought together Kabila's government, former rebel movements, and the political opposition, with Kabila serving as president alongside four vice presidents drawn from the various factions. Before dawn on 28 March, gunmen, described by the government as former members of the elite protection unit of the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, attacked a military camp and the state broadcaster, but the assault was repelled by loyalist forces and quickly collapsed.

Kabila survived unharmed. The attack, one of several destabilizing incidents that shook the transition, underscored the precariousness of the DRC's peace, threatened by unintegrated armed factions, regional tensions in the east, and the loyalties of Mobutu era holdouts, but the transitional government held and moved, haltingly, toward the elections of 2006.