Togo, 1991 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
In late November 1991, after the transitional High Council of the Republic voted to ban President Gnassingbe Eyadema's RPT party, soldiers loyal to Eyadema laid siege to the official residence of the transitional prime minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh in Lome, intensifying the military campaign to break the democratic transition. The soldiers demanded that Koffigoh's government be replaced, that the RPT be legalized again, and that the transitional legislature be dissolved, threatening to reduce the city to ashes. Koffigoh appealed to France for military aid, but the French government, a traditional ally of Eyadema, declined to intervene.
Eyadema publicly called on the soldiers to return to barracks and expressed continued trust in Koffigoh while inviting him to negotiate a new national unity government. Following talks, the soldiers lifted the siege after two days, only to promptly resume it. Koffigoh offered to bring Eyadema's supporters into the government but refused to dissolve it, setting the stage for the decisive assault days later.
The November siege was a critical escalation that left Koffigoh cornered and Eyadema ascendant.
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
46111281991- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-461-1991-11-28-3
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh withstood the late-November 1991 siege of his residence but was left cornered.
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
New York Times
The Guardian
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 →