Sierra Leone, 1996 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as an attempted military coup in Sierra Leone on 8 September 1996 against the newly elected civilian president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had taken office only months earlier, in March 1996, ending years of military rule under the NPRC. Kabbah's fragile government inherited a country still torn by the brutal civil war against the Revolutionary United Front, and it faced deep hostility from disgruntled elements of the army, many of whom resented civilian control, feared prosecution, and had their own murky ties to the insurgency, the so called sobels who were soldiers by day and rebels by night. A coup attempt or plot against Kabbah in September 1996 arose from that military disaffection and was thwarted at that stage.
But the reprieve was temporary. In May 1997 army officers succeeded in overthrowing Kabbah in a violent coup, installing the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which invited the RUF into government and plunged Sierra Leone into a horrific new phase of atrocity, until a Nigerian led ECOMOG intervention restored Kabbah to power in 1998.
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
45109081996
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah survived the September 1996 plot but was overthrown by the army in 1997.
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
Chicago Tribune
Irish 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 →