Guinea, 1996 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 2 to 3 February 1996 a serious army mutiny erupted in Guinea against President Lansana Conte, when soldiers angry over pay and conditions rose up, shelled and set fire to the presidential palace in Conakry, and briefly seized the president himself before the revolt collapsed. What began as a pay mutiny escalated into what many regarded as a coup attempt: rebellious troops took control of parts of the capital, and at one point mutineers reportedly captured Conte and pressured him to sign concessions. But the uprising lacked coherent leadership and clear political aims, and Conte, who had ruled since his 1984 coup, managed to regain control as loyal forces and the mutiny's own disorganization turned the tide.
The fighting left dozens dead. Conte survived, granted the soldiers pay raises to defuse their grievances, and subsequently moved to punish those he deemed ringleaders, tightening his grip. He continued to rule Guinea, weathering later plots and his own declining health, until his death in December 2008, which was itself followed within hours by a military coup.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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:
- Cline Center id
43802021996- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-438-1996-02-03
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Lansana Conte survived the February 1996 army mutiny that shelled his palace and briefly seized him.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. 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
CSP
Powell and Thyne
Wikipedia
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
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 →