Sudan, 1976 — rebel coup attempt
Event Summary
On 2 July 1976 a force of about one thousand insurgents, armed and trained by Libya and directed by the exiled Umma Party and National Front leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, crossed the desert from bases in Libya and stormed the Sudanese capital in a bid to overthrow President Gaafar Nimeiri. The fighters, drawn largely from Ansar supporters of western Sudan and led on the ground by Muhammad Nour Saad, seized the airport and key points and fought three days of house to house battles in Khartoum and Omdurman that killed some 3,000 people. Their attempt to capture or kill Nimeiri, who rallied the country by radio, failed when a column of army tanks drove into the city and broke the rebels.
The rising, the most serious threat Nimeiri had faced, was crushed within a week. In the brutal aftermath, mass arrests followed and ninety eight people implicated in the plot were executed, drawing international condemnation. The affair, which enraged Sudan against Libya's Gaddafi, paradoxically led to the 1977 National Reconciliation between Nimeiri and his opponents.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
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
62507021976- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-625-1976-07-02
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Gaafar Nimeiri survived the July 1976 Libyan-backed insurrection after tanks broke the rebels.
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
New York 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 →