Uganda, 1977 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in Uganda on 18 June 1977, coded with the leader injured, during the final blood soaked years of Idi Amin's dictatorship, when his army was torn by plots, defections, and constant purges. By 1977 Amin's rule had grown ever more paranoid and violent, especially after the February 1977 murder of the Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, and there were repeated reports of assassination attempts and mutinies against him, some of which reportedly left Amin wounded. The dataset's coding of the leader as injured reflects one such attempt in mid-1977 in which Amin was said to have been hurt but survived.
Amin weathered these internal challenges through terror and the loyalty of his security units and foreign soldiers, meeting each with fresh executions. His regime was ultimately destroyed not from within but by external invasion, when Tanzanian forces and Ugandan exiles overthrew him in the 1979 war, ending one of the most murderous dictatorships in postcolonial Africa.
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
50006181977
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Idi Amin reportedly survived the June 1977 attempt with injury and remained in power until 1979.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; injured. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Newsday
Los Angeles Times
Wikipedia
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 →