Niger, 1976 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Niger on 15 March 1976 against the military government of Lieutenant Colonel Seyni Kountche, who had seized power in April 1974 by overthrowing the founding president Hamani Diori. Kountche's Supreme Military Council ruled a poor, drought stricken, landlocked country, and his austere and authoritarian regime faced factional rivalries within the small officer corps. In March 1976 a coup attempt was mounted against Kountche, one of several plots he weathered during his rule; the plotters were defeated and the ringleaders arrested, tried, and in some cases executed, as Kountche purged suspected opponents.
Kountche survived this and later attempts through a combination of loyalist support, a pervasive security apparatus, and periodic reshuffles of the ruling council. He continued to rule Niger until his death from illness in 1987, when he was peacefully succeeded by his army chief of staff, one of the rare orderly transfers of power in the country's coup marked postcolonial history.
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
43603151976- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-436-1976-03-15
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Lieutenant Colonel Seyni Kountche crushed the March 1976 coup attempt and ruled Niger until his death in 1987.
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
Luttwak
Wikipedia
New York Times
The Guardian
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 →