Sudan, 1999 — military coup
Event Summary
On 12 December 1999 Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir moved troops and tanks against the National Assembly in Khartoum, dissolved parliament, and declared a state of emergency, ousting his former ally Hassan al-Turabi from the speakership in what is widely described as a palace coup within the regime. The move came two days before the assembly was to vote on constitutional amendments championed by Turabi that would have reduced presidential powers, the climax of a long power struggle between the president and the Islamist ideologue whose National Islamic Front had underpinned the regime since the 1989 coup that first brought Bashir to power. Bashir suspended parts of the 1998 constitution and curtailed Turabi's political activity; Turabi was not physically harmed in the takeover itself, though he was later repeatedly detained after founding an opposition party and signing a memorandum with the southern SPLA.
The rupture pushed the regime in a more pragmatic direction, and Bashir consolidated power through the December 2000 elections that his party swept.
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
62512121999
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Hassan al-Turabi, speaker of the dissolved National Assembly, removed from power but not physically harmed at the time.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; 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
Wikipedia
The Independent
The Christian Science Monitor
Los Angeles 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 →