During the night of February 17 to 18, 1964, about 150 members of Gabon's military, gendarmerie, and police under Lieutenants Jacques Mombo and Valere Essone seized the presidential palace in Libreville and arrested President Leon M'ba, weeks after he had dissolved the National Assembly and rigged the coming elections against the opposition. Without firing a shot, the plotters announced the coup on Radio Libreville, forced M'ba to broadcast an acknowledgment of defeat, released political prisoners, and installed opposition leader Jean Hilaire Aubame, who had not been involved in the plot, at the head of a provisional government, moving M'ba toward Lambarene. France reacted at once: informed via chief of staff Albert Bernard Bongo, President de Gaulle, invoking the 1960 defense arrangements and pressed by French business interests, sent paratroopers who toppled the provisional government during the night of February 19 and restored M'ba, at a cost of one French soldier and roughly 15 to 25 Gabonese dead.
M'ba then imprisoned more than 150 opponents; Aubame was sentenced to ten years of hard labor and ten years of exile.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Leon M'ba, arrested at the presidential palace during the night of February 17 to 18, 1964, forced to announce his defeat, and moved toward Lambarene; he was restored to power by French troops on the night of February 19 to 20.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Leon M'ba (president, arrested and then restored by French intervention)
Jacques Mombo and Valere Essone (lieutenants, coup leaders)
Jean Hilaire Aubame (opposition leader installed as head of the provisional government, later sentenced)
Albert Bernard Bongo, later Omar Bongo (chief of staff who alerted the French, future president)
Charles de Gaulle (ordered the French intervention)
Sources
The coup was staged between 17 and 19 February 1964 by officers rising against President Leon M'ba following his dissolution of the legislature on 21 January 1964; 150 plotters arrested M'ba and government officials in a takeover with few casualties, announced the coup on Radio Libreville, and installed a provisional government, after which de Gaulle, informed by chief of staff Albert Bernard Bongo and honoring the 1960 treaty, restored the M'ba government with French paratroopers on the night of 19 February.
During the night of 17 February into the early morning of 18 February 1964, 150 Gabonese military personnel headed by Lieutenant Jacques Mombo and Valere Essone arrested officials including the National Assembly president, forced M'ba to broadcast a speech acknowledging his defeat, and fired no shots; a provisional government was formed with the presidency offered to Aubame, who had been unaware of the coup until telephoned after sunrise, while M'ba was taken toward Lambarene.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Leon M'ba; corroborated by the Military History wiki mirror of the coup articleopen source ↗
Over the course of the French restoration operation one French soldier was killed and 15 to 25 died on the Gabonese side; after reinstatement M'ba imprisoned more than 150 opponents, and Aubame, despite not having participated in the coup's planning, was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and 10 years of exile, a sentence later commuted.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Leon M'ba and Wikipedia, 1964 Gabonese coup d'etatopen source ↗
An academic library account records that on February 17, 1964 about 150 soldiers headed by Lieutenants Mombo and Essone arrested prominent politicians and forced M'ba to announce his resignation as president, with a provisional government formed and M'ba sent 250 kilometers from the capital, before French paratroopers restored him to power.
SOURCE REVIEWEDBlackPast.org, Leon M'ba (1902-1967)open source ↗
Editorial Note
DATASET VERSUS OUTCOME: the dataset codes this as a successful coup, and the plotters did depose and hold the president and install a government, but French military intervention reversed it within about two days, restoring M'ba by February 20; this entry follows the Ethiopia 1960 precedent of enriching the event as coded while flagging the reversal prominently. Date variance: the seizure ran overnight February 17 to 18 (the dataset uses February 17, some sources emphasize February 18), and the French counteraction the night of February 19 with restoration on February 20. Arc note: the coup's suppression entrenched the French security guarantee and the hyper presidency inherited in 1967 by Omar Bongo, the man who had alerted Paris.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Leon M'ba, arrested at the presidential palace during the night of February 17 to 18, 1964, forced to announce his defeat, and moved toward Lambarene; he was restored to power by French troops on the night of February 19 to 20..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; arrested or jailed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Gabon’s President Ousted by Bloodless Army Coup,” February 19, 1964
“U.S. Queries France on Rumor Americans Aided Gabon Coup,” March 12, 1964
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 →