Niger, 1998 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 2 January 1998, during a period of political tension and military restiveness under President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara of Niger, who had seized power in a January 1996 coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Mahamane Ousmane and then won a July 1996 election widely condemned as fraudulent. Ruling through a National Salvation Council that had suspended the constitution and banned parties, Mainassara faced mounting opposition detentions, a repressive crackdown on the press, an economic crisis with mounting external debt, and unpaid public-sector salaries. Army discontent over pay arrears was acute: units near-mutinied in February 1998, and several Republican Guard units mutinied again in May 1998 over unpaid salaries, an unrest quelled with fatalities.
Mainassara himself was assassinated in an April 1999 coup by members of his Presidential Guard. The 2 January 1998 coding sits at the start of 1998 in this climate of anti-Mainassara conspiracy and military restiveness, just weeks before the February 1998 army near-mutiny.
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
43601021998
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Mainassara held power through the 1998 unrest but was assassinated in a 1999 coup.
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
CSP
New York Times
Chicago Tribune
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 →