On July 22, 1971 troops loyal to President Gaafar Nimeiry launched a successful counter-coup in Sudan, freeing him after three days in captivity and overthrowing the short-lived communist-backed government of Major Hashem al-Atta, an outcome followed by the summary execution of the coup leaders and a sweeping purge of the Sudanese left. After al-Atta's July 19 coup faltered for lack of support, decisive foreign intervention sealed its fate: Libya's Gaddafi forced down the British airliner carrying the coup figures al-Nur Osman and Hamadallah, and Egypt backed Nimeiry. When al-Atta's attempt to rally a Khartoum crowd failed and he was heckled with calls for Nimeiry's return, loyal army units moved into the capital and freed the president after a brief battle, with Nimeiry reportedly jumping from a window to reach his rescuers.
Restored to power, Nimeiry moved with lethal speed: military courts issued rapid death sentences, and within a week al-Atta and the other principal coup leaders, along with several Sudanese Communist Party figures including its general secretary Abdel Khaliq Mahjub, were executed. Nimeiry then crushed the SCP, expelled East German advisers, and turned against the Soviet Union.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Major Hashem al-Atta and the coup leaders, overthrown by the July 22, 1971 counter-coup and then summarily executed within days.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Hashem al-Atta (coup leader overthrown and executed)
Babikir al-Nur Osman and Farouk Hamadallah (coup figures extradited and executed)
Abdel Khaliq Mahjub (SCP general secretary executed)
Gaafar Nimeiry (president restored to power)
Sources
After three days in captivity, Nimeiry loyalists launched a successful counter-coup, freeing the deposed president and dismantling al-Atta's government; Gaddafi subsequently extradited al-Nur and Hamadallah to Sudan, and all three coup leaders, along with half a dozen others, were summarily executed, after which Nimeiry ruthlessly crushed the Sudanese Communist Party with wholesale arrests.
On July 22 anti-communist soldiers deposed the coup government and restored Nimeiry, and within hours four principal actors in the Siesta Coup were being executed, including Major Hashem al-Atta, commander in chief of the armed forces for the coup government, Colonel Abdel Moneim Ahmed, Lieutenant Colonel Osman Hussein, and Captain Muaweya Abdel Hal.
SOURCE REVIEWEDExecutedToday, 1971: Four for Sudan's Siesta Coupopen source ↗
In the aftermath of the failed coup, leading members of the Sudanese Communist Party were executed, and several communist-dominated trade unions were banned; in his foreign policy Nimeiry expelled East German security advisers and denounced the Soviet Union and most of its European allies for their attitude to the attempted coup.
SOURCE REVIEWEDMilitary Wiki mirror of Wikipedia, 1971 Sudanese coup d'etatopen source ↗
Al-Atta along with others in the Sudanese Communist Party including its general secretary Abdel Khaliq Mahjub were executed, and Nimeiry waged a campaign against the Sudanese left, with military courts set up to issue rapid death sentences and, within a week, those involved in ousting Nimeiry along with countless others executed.
SOURCE REVIEWEDJadaliyya, Prison Memories: Sudanese Communists and the Aftermath of July 1971open source ↗
Editorial Note
Killings protocol applied: this record carries a killed fate, and the executions are cited to multiple sources and given as attributed. Named executed leaders include Hashem al-Atta, Colonel Abdel Moneim Ahmed, Lieutenant Colonel Osman Hussein, and Captain Muaweya Abdel Hal (per ExecutedToday), plus SCP general secretary Abdel Khaliq Mahjub and figures al-Nur Osman and Hamadallah (extradited by Libya); sources describe the broader toll as the executions of coup leaders plus SCP leaders and unspecified others within a week, which is recorded as attributed rather than resolved to a single number. Paired record care: the companion record 1971-07-19 is al-Atta's original coup that briefly ousted Nimeiry; this is its violent reversal. Foreign role: Libya's extradition of the coup figures and Egyptian and Libyan support for Nimeiry are documented and stated. Arc note: the purge crippled the Sudanese Communist Party and shifted Nimeiry away from the Soviet bloc; the Addis Ababa accord ending the southern war followed in 1972.
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:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Major Hashem al-Atta and the coup leaders, overthrown by the July 22, 1971 counter-coup and then summarily executed within days..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; killed. 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
“Nimeiry Is Sworn in Sudan As First Elected President,” October 13, 1971
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 →