| 2001 Central African Republic coup d'état attempt | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Government of Central African Republic 100 Libyan troops[1] Chadian troops[2]Congolese rebels[2] | Army faction | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ange-Félix Patassé Abel Abrou † François N'Djadder Bedaya † | André Kolingba François Bozizé | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| At least 59 killed in initial coup attempt.[2] Around 300Yakoma civilians murdered following coup[1] | |||||||
On the night of 27–28 May 2001 a coup attempt was carried out by commandos of theCentral African Armed Forces who attempted to overthrow incumbent presidentAnge-Félix Patassé. The coup attempt failed, but violence continued in the capitalBangui over the following days.[1] It exacerbated mounting ethnic and political tensions in theCentral African Republic.
The residence of president Patassé was attacked by soldiers on the night of 27-28 May 2001. The attackers killed 18 loyalist soldiers, including 14 presidential guards whose throats were slit while they slept.[3]: 11 They were deterred before dawn; however, fighting went on for multiple days in Bangui,Bimbo and the Kasaï military camp.[4]: 164 According to Central African authorities, 59 people were killed during these clashes (25 military and 34 civilians).[5]
On 30 May, GeneralAndré Kolingba (who had led the country in the past after coming to power in the1981 coup) claimed responsibility for the attempted coup throughRadio France Internationale and demanded that Patassé "resign and hand over power to him".[5][3]: 7 Patassé reacted bydemoting Kolingba and four other officers to the rank ofprivate. On June 1, Kolingba called on the other coup plotters to lay down arms and attempted to negotiate with Patassé, which the latter refused. Shortly afterwards, weapons were found in Kolingba's residence.[5] Other officers who played a prominent role in the coup attempt included General Ngjengbot, Colonel Gamba, Major Saulet and Kolingba's son Lieutenant-Colonel Guy-Serge Kolingba.[4]: 170 GeneralFrançois Bozizé, who fled toChad after the coup attempt and who had already been involved in the1982 coup attempt alongside Patassé himself,[6]: lxvi was also suspected to be involved. However, the Central African Republic dropped charges against him at the end of 2001.[3]: 10–11
On 6 July, the Central African chief of staff Abel Abrou, General Francois N'Djadder Bedaya and Commander Yambi were killed. These killings were probably carried out by coup plotters, but may also have been the work of Patassé loyalists who saw them as a threat.[3]: 11–12 [7][page needed]
After a long trial by the Central African criminal court against 680 defendants, Kolingba (who had fled toUganda) and 21 of his associates, including 3 of his sons, were handed adeath sentence in October 2002.[8][3]: 7 Central African defense ministerJean-Jacques Démafouth was also arrested in connection to the coup. However, Démafouth was among the 49 acquitted in the 2002 trial for lack of evidence.[9]
The coup had the effect of dividing the country's armed forces into two opposing camps which went on to clash violently: one that supported Patassé and another that supported Bozizé.[10] In conjunction with this, existing ethnic tensions were worsened; Bozizé, a member of theGbaya people, enjoyed support among fellow Gbaya.[4]: 172 TheYakoma people, who had long held key administrative, military and financial positions in the country and who had been systematically favored during the presidency of Kolingba (himself a Yakoma),[6]: 4 [11]: 37 were now targeted by the Patassé government in reprisal attacks. Hundreds of unarmed civilians, most of them Yakoma, wereextrajudicially executed and about 80.000 fled to escape the violence.[12][1][4]: 164 [3]: 12–13 Several of these killings took place in broad daylight on the streets of Bangui.[4]: 171
Over the course of the following two years, foreign fighters fromMuammar Gaddafi'sLibya as well asCongolese rebels from theMLC (led byJean-Pierre Bemba) were deployed in combat against Bozizé loyalists. In exchange for Libyan involvement, Libya was promised the monopoly ondiamond extraction.[11]: 37 The MLC - partially composed ofchild soldiers - was later found guilty by theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) of committingwar crimes during this intervention, including murder, rape, pillaging and torture.[13][4]: 171 Bemba was arrested in connection to the war crimes inBelgium in 2008,[14][15] butacquitted in 2018.[16]
Forces loyal to Bozizé marched on Bangui in October 2002 inanother failed coup attempt. Bozizé finally overthrew Patassé and took power in the2003 coup.
