Gambia, 1995 — palace coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 27 January 1995, corresponding to the alleged palace coup against Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council chairman Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia. Jammeh had seized power in a bloodless July 1994 coup that ended Dawda Jawara's 30-year rule, alongside fellow junior officers including Sana Sabally and Sadibou Hydara. On 27 January 1995, the same day the junta's National Consultative Committee reported and recommended a two-year transition, Vice-Chairman Captain Sana Sabally and Interior Minister Captain Sadibou Hydara, respectively second and third in the AFPRC, allegedly attempted to overthrow Jammeh.
According to the official account they went to Jammeh's office intending to kill him but were overpowered and arrested. Both were detained at Mile 2 Prison and tortured; Hydara died in custody in June 1995 and Sabally was sentenced to nine years. The Gambia's later Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission found the coup narrative had been largely fabricated by Jammeh to eliminate rivals within the council.
The 27 January 1995 coding matches this palace-coup power struggle exactly.
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
42001271995
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Jammeh crushed his rivals within the junta and went on to rule Gambia until 2017.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Guardian
Irish Times
St. Louis Post Dispatch
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 →