Senegal, 1962 — palace coup attempt
Event Summary
On 17 December 1962 Senegal was plunged into a constitutional crisis when Prime Minister Mamadou Dia, at odds with President Leopold Sedar Senghor over economic policy and the direction of the newly independent state, ordered gendarmes to occupy the National Assembly and arrested four deputies to block a motion of no confidence against his government. The deputies, denied access to the assembly building, instead met at the home of assembly president Lamine Gueye and passed the censure motion. Senghor, who had already alerted the army, prevailed as the gendarmerie and police placed themselves under his direct orders and paratroopers secured Radio Senegal.
Dia, abandoned by his few supporters, was arrested the next day. Tried for attempting a coup, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, serving twelve years. The crisis ended Senegal's dual executive parliamentary system; a 1963 constitutional amendment abolished the office of prime minister and established a presidential regime under Senghor.
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
43312171962- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-433-1962-12-17
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Leopold Sedar Senghor prevailed and consolidated presidential power; Prime Minister Mamadou Dia was arrested and imprisoned.
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
Wikipedia
New York Times
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 →