Coup Atlas Research Database
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50001251971SuccessfulMilitary coup

Uganda, 1971 — military coup

Uganda (UGA)East Africa, AfricaJanuary 25, 1971

Event Summary

Idi Amin came to power in Uganda following a military coup and ruled as president from 1971 to 1979, a regime noted for the sheer scale of its brutality. (The Cline dataset records the date as 25 January 1971. Accessed sources this session confirmed that Amin took power by coup but did not independently name the deposed president, so the target leader is left unresearched below rather than assumed.)

Researched Details

Research unresolved

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target: unresolved in the current research
Accessed sources this session confirmed Amin seized power by coup but did not independently name the deposed president (widely reported to be Milton Obote); left blank rather than assumed.

Sources

Idi Amin came to power following a coup and was president of Uganda 1971–79; his regime was noted for its brutality.
SOURCE REVIEWED Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Idi Amin" (updated 22 May 2026) open source ↗

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
50001251971
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-500-1971-01-25

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Target: unresolved in the current research.

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. 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
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

New York Times

“Obote Ousted by Ugandan Army,” January 26, 1971
“Tensions Easing Between Ugandans And Tanzanians,” December 26, 1971
“Capital of Uganda Taken by Invaders; New Regime Formed,” by John Darnton, April 12, 1979

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 →

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