Togo, 1991 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 1 October 1991 soldiers loyal to President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo mounted the first of a series of armed actions against the transitional government of Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh, seizing the national radio and television station in Lome and demanding that Koffigoh resign. The confrontation grew directly out of the sovereign national conference of August 1991, which had stripped Eyadema of most of his powers and installed Koffigoh, a lawyer and human rights leader, as transitional prime minister to lead the country to elections. Eyadema, however, retained the loyalty of the army, and his soldiers repeatedly moved to undo the transition and restore his authority.

In this 1 October action the troops occupied the broadcast station and issued their ultimatum before leaving, after which Koffigoh went on the air to say order had been restored. The seizure was the opening move in a sustained military campaign against the transitional authority that escalated over the following weeks, and it did not topple Koffigoh at this stage, though it signaled that Eyadema's armed backers would not accept the erosion of his power.