Mapping successful coups in Africa over seven decades

In 1972 General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a bloodless coup to overthrow the democratically elected Ghanaian Prime Minister Dr Kofi Busia. Six years later, he was deposed in a palace coup and executed by a firing squad almost a year later.

Thomas Sankara became Burkina Faso’s president in 1983 following a coup on his behalf when he was under house arrest. On 15 October 1987, Sankara was killed by an armed group during a coup led by his successor Blaise Compaoré.

Gaafar Nimeiry ousted Sudan’s Head of State Ismail al-Azhari in 1969 and took power, first as the head of the military junta, then as the president before he was overthrown in 1985.

Jean-Baptiste Bagaza deposed Burundi’s President Michel Micombero in 1976 and took power. Eleven years later he was ousted, forcing him into exile.

Omar al-Bashir came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government. He went on to serve as Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was ousted in a coup.

François Bozizé Yangouvonda seized power in 2003 to become the sixth president of the Central African Republic. He was overthrown 10 years later.

Keeping it in the family

Seizing power is a family tradition in some countries. Equatorial Guinea President Francisco Macías Nguema was overthrown by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, in a bloody coup in 1979. Teodoro succeeded him. As of 2024, he is the second-longest consecutively-serving current non-royal national leader in the world.

Laurent Kabila overthrew President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 and became DR Congo’s third president. He was succeeded by his then 29-year-old son Joseph Kabila after he was assassinated by one of his bodyguards.