On May 25, 1997 disaffected soldiers in Sierra Leone overthrew the elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, freed the jailed Major Johnny Paul Koroma to lead them, and formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council; Kabbah fled into exile in Guinea. Kabbah, of the Sierra Leone People's Party, had been democratically elected in 1996, but the army remained unstable amid the ongoing civil war. On May 25, 1997 mutinous soldiers seized power, broke into the Central Prison in Freetown, and installed Major Johnny Paul Koroma, who had been awaiting trial over a 1996 coup plot, as chairman of the AFRC.
The junta suspended the constitution, banned parties, and invited the rebel Revolutionary United Front to join it, producing severe violence and a collapse of order. President Kabbah fled to Guinea on the day of the coup. He was later restored in 1998 by a regional intervention.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, overthrown on May 25, 1997 and fled to Guinea; he was not physically harmed and was later restored.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (elected president overthrown)
Johnny Paul Koroma (freed from prison to lead the AFRC junta)
Sources
A military coup on 25 May 1997 replaced President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koroma, who was released on the day of the coup after soldiers broke into the Central Prison in Freetown, having been among nine soldiers charged with conspiring to overthrow Kabbah's government in September 1996, and the Constitution was suspended and political parties banned.
SOURCE REVIEWEDAmnesty International, Sierra Leone military coup 25 May 1997open source ↗
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah fled to neighbouring Guinea on the day of the coup and was joined by other members of his government, and on the day of the coup and during the following days as many as one hundred people died in Freetown in the ensuing violence.
SOURCE REVIEWEDAmnesty International, Sierra Leone military coup 25 May 1997open source ↗
On 25 May 1997 disaffected soldiers staged a military coup and called on Major Johnny Paul Koroma, who was in prison on treason charges, to be their leader, Koroma formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and invited the RUF to join him, the junta failed to attract international support, and ECOMOG aided by Sierra Leone Civil Defence Forces removed the junta from Freetown in February 1998, with Kabbah returning on 10 March 1998.
SOURCE REVIEWEDUK Country Information, Sierra Leoneopen source ↗
Major Johnny Paul Koroma, awaiting trial on charges stemming from a September 1996 coup attempt, was freed from prison and named Chairman of the new Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which immediately suspended the Constitution, banned political parties, and invited the rebel RUF to join in controlling the country.
SOURCE REVIEWEDUS State Department, 1997 Human Rights Report Sierra Leoneopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Fate coding: the deposed president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah fled to Guinea on the day of the coup and was not physically harmed, matching the dataset's exiled fate; he was restored to office in March 1998 after a Nigerian-led ECOMOG intervention, later context. Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup, accurately, a mutiny by soldiers who installed the jailed Major Johnny Paul Koroma. Arc link: this continues the Sierra Leone thread this enrichment has tracked; it overthrew the elected government that Julius Maada Bio had handed power to in 1996 (a separate record in this batch). Context recorded and handled neutrally: the AFRC junta suspended the constitution, banned parties, and invited the rebel RUF to join it, producing a collapse of order. Mass-violence context handled with care and cited: as many as one hundred people died in Freetown around the coup, and the ensuing AFRC/RUF period was marked by severe abuses documented by human-rights groups; these are attributed to their sources rather than asserted, without gratuitous detail. Neutrality maintained on a highly sensitive, contested subject.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, overthrown on May 25, 1997 and fled to Guinea; he was not physically harmed and was later restored..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; exiled. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Rebel Soldiers overthrow Sierra Leone’s President,” May 26, 1997
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 →