Liberia, 1994 — rebel coup attempt

Event Summary

The dataset records an event coded as an attempted rebel coupi in Liberia on 15 September 1994 during the chaotic civil war that had engulfed the country since Charles Taylor's insurgency began in 1989. By 1994 Liberia was ruled, in name, by an interim government of national unity headed by David Kpormakpor under a fragile peace process, while real power was fragmented among warring factions, Taylor's NPFL, ULIMO, and others, that controlled different regions amid horrific violence overseen loosely by the West African ECOMOG peacekeeping force. In September 1994 armed fighters, reportedly a faction of the Armed Forces of Liberia and allied militia elements, briefly seized the executive mansion in Monrovia in what was described as a coup attempt against the interim authority, throwing the capital into confusion.

The action did not establish any lasting new government and collapsed amid the general anarchy. Liberia's agony continued for years as successive peace accords broke down, until a 1996 settlement led to the 1997 election that made Charles Taylor president, only for a renewed civil war to erupt and finally drive him into exile in 2003.