Coup Atlas Research Database
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62511091959AttemptedMilitary coup

Sudan, 1959 — military coup attempt

Sudan (SDN)North Africa, AfricaNovember 9, 1959

Event Summary

The dataset records an attempted military coup in Sudan on 9 November 1959, during the military government of General Ibrahim Abboud, who had taken power in a bloodless coup in November 1958, the first military regime of independent Sudan. Abboud's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ruled by decree, banned political parties, and pursued Arabization and Islamization policies in the south that deepened the conflict begun with the 1955 Torit mutiny. His regime was not monolithic, and rival officers who felt sidelined mounted several coup attempts against him in its first years.

A significant plot in 1959 by dissident officers was suppressed and its leaders court-martialed. Any coup attempt in November 1959 came within that factional turbulence and did not topple Abboud, who ruled until he was forced from power by the civilian October Revolution of 1964.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Ibrahim Abboud survived the attempt and ruled Sudan until the October Revolution of 1964
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Ibrahim Abboud (military ruler of Sudan, target)
Dissident army officers (recurrent plotters against the junta)

Sources

General Ibrahim Abboud took power in Sudan in a bloodless military coup on 17 November 1958, establishing the first military regime of independent Sudan.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Ibrahim Abboud open source ↗
Abboud's military government banned political parties and trade unions and ruled through a Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Ibrahim Abboud open source ↗
Abboud's regime faced several coup attempts by rival officers in its early years, including plots in 1959 that were suppressed.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, History of Sudan (1956 to 1969) open source ↗
Abboud ruled Sudan until he was forced to hand over power following the civilian October Revolution of 1964.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Ibrahim Abboud open source ↗

Editorial Note

No discrete documentation of a coup attempt precisely on 9 November 1959 was found in accessible English sources this session; the entry records the dataset's coding and the verified context of the early Abboud military regime and its internal coup attempts, with the specific event unconfirmed, flagged. Follows the 1955 Torit mutiny and the 1958 Abboud coup in the Sudan arc.

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
62511091959
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-625-1959-11-09-3

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Ibrahim Abboud survived the attempt and ruled Sudan until the October Revolution of 1964.

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

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
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

New York Times

“Sudanese Army Man Seized,” November 21, 1959

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 →

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