Sierra Leone, 2023 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 31 July 2023, corresponding to the July to August 2023 coup plot arrests in Sierra Leone under President Julius Maada Bio, an episode distinct from the later armed attack of 26 November 2023. On 31 July 2023 Sierra Leonean police issued a statement saying the security sector had been following intelligence about individuals, including senior military officers, working to undermine the peace of the state, and that several arrests had been made. Preliminary investigations indicated the suspects had planned to use purported peaceful protests scheduled for 7 to 10 August 2023 as a guise to unleash violence against state institutions.
On 8 August it was confirmed that 19 people had been arrested, including 14 serving armed forces personnel, police officers, and a retired chief superintendent extradited from Liberia, all accused of state subversion. The context was post-election tension following Bio's disputed June 2023 re-election and a regional coup wave. Critics of Bio's government concluded there was no real plot and that it was a pretext to repress the opposition, since the authorities withheld names and ranks.
The 31 July 2023 coding matches the police statement and arrests.
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
45107312023
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Bio's government arrested soldiers and civilians over an alleged subversion plot.
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
The Point
Sierra Leone Telegraph
Vanguard
Wikipedia
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 →