1973 Rwandan coup d'état
ACIAWFB map of Rwanda
Date 5 July 1973 Location Kigali,Rwanda Result Coup successful
Belligerents
Committee for Peace and National Union	Rwandan government
Commanders and leaders
Juvénal Habyarimana	Grégoire Kayibanda
Units involved
Rwandan Armed Forces	None
Casualties and losses
0	56 died after arrest

Part ofa series on the
History ofRwanda
Kingdom  ?–1962 German East Africa 1885–1919 Rumanura famine 1916–1918 Belgian mandate (Ruanda-Urundi) 1922–1962 Revolution 1959–1962 Coup of Gitarama 1961 Republic of Rwanda 1962–present Bugesera invasion 1963 Coup d'état of 5 July 1973 Civil War 1990–1994 Genocide 1993–1994 First Congo War 1996–1997 Second Congo War 1998–2003 COVID-19 pandemic 2020–present
v t e

The1973 Rwandan coup d'état, also known as theCoup d'état of 5 July (French:Coup d'état du 5 Juillet), was amilitary coup staged byJuvénal Habyarimana against incumbent presidentGrégoire Kayibanda in theRepublic of Rwanda.^[1] The coup took place on 5 July 1973 and was considered by many as a betrayal.^[1]

While still underBelgian rule in the 1950s and early 1960s, resentment towards colonial rule and the ethnicTutsi elite among theHutu had increased, and led to the formation of the political partyParmehutu byGrégoire Kayibanda in 1957, with aims to overthrow the monarchy and gain identical rights ("emancipation") for the Hutus. This was achieved following the 1961election andreferendum, but the absence of effective Tutsi opposition led to regional tensions between Hutu politicians. The central and southern politicians were opposed by those from the north.^[2]

In the months prior to Habyarimana's coup, theArmy (mainly composed of northern soldiers) had intensified persecution of ethnicTutsi through the formation ofHutu vigilante committees to ensure enforcement of the required ethnic quotas requested by Habyarimana.^[3] Kayibanda refused this policy of quotas and was then described by the Army as a 'weak' leader. Fake rumors and documents were produced by the Army against the President and Rwanda became isolated economically and diplomatically, especially from neighbouringUganda (then under the rule ofIdi Amin) which housed large numbers of Tutsi. This situation was regarded by the majority of the population as a betrayal from Habyarimana. Indeed, prior to the coup Habyarimana, who served as Army Chief of Staff, was also a friend of president Kayibanda.

On the morning of 5 July 1973,Juvénal Habyarimana withAML-60 armored cars and infantry from the Rwandan National guard, took over the government and put then-presidentGrégoire Kayibanda under house arrest. The next morning after the coup Habyarimana announced theCommittee for Peace and National Union. The coup was completely successful and resulted in no lives lost; however, 56 people were arrested. After the coup, all 56 people that were arrested, including former president Grégoire Kayibanda, starved to death while in prison.^[4]

Immediately after seizing power, Habyarimana established atotalitarian dictatorship^[5] and outlawed all political parties, but in 1974 created his own, theNational Revolutionary Movement for Development (Mouvement révolutionnaire national pour le développement, MRND), as the country'sonly legally-allowed party.^[6]

While the coup itself was bloodless, fifty-six people – mostly former leaders – were killed by the security services between 1974 and 1977, with Kayibanda dying in detention in 1976, probably of starvation.^[7] Others were killed through various means, including immolation, beating, and being tied to moving vehicles. These other deaths were not publicly revealed until a political fracture in the new regime emerged in the early 1980s. As a result, Habyarimana's government offered $2,000 to $20,000 USD in compensation to families who had lost a member.^[8]

• Gatwa, Tharcisse (2005).The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises, 1900-1994. Milton Keynes: Regnum Books International.ISBN 9781870345248.
• Prunier, Gérard (1998),The Rwanda Crisis, 1959-1994, London: Hurst & Co.,ISBN 9781850653721

• Renversement du gouvernement de Grégoire Kayibanda au Rwanda, 1973 atUniversité de Sherbrooke

• Conflicts in 1973
• Military coups in Rwanda
• 1973 in Rwanda
• July 1973 in Africa
• 1970s coups d'état

• Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing French-language text