The Comoros Coup Cycle
The Comoros has had around twenty coups or attempts since independence in 1975, and a French mercenary named Bob Denard was involved in four of them. The islands voted for independence from France in 1974 by about 95 per cent, except on Mayotte, which voted to stay French and did — a division France arranged by counting the results island by island rather than as a territory, and which the UN has repeatedly called an occupation. Ahmed Abdallah declared independence unilaterally in July 1975 and was overthrown within a month by Denard, acting for a rival. The new president Ali Soilih was a radical who lowered the voting age to fourteen, burned the state archives, attacked the traditional aristocracy and the clergy, and was himself overthrown by Denard in 1978 — restoring Abdallah, whom Denard had removed three years earlier. Denard then stayed. He converted to Islam, took the name Said Mustapha M'hadju, married locally, and commanded the presidential guard for eleven years, running the country's security apparatus with South African and French acquiescence as a useful base for sanctions-busting. Abdallah was shot in his office in 1989 with Denard present, and Denard was flown out by French paratroopers. He came back in 1995 with thirty men in inflatable boats and took the country again; France sent 900 troops and removed him in a week. Anjouan seceded in 1997 and was retaken by the African Union in 2008. Denard was convicted in France in 2006 and died in 2007. Mayotte remains French, and Comorians attempting to reach it by boat drown in large numbers every year.
- Year: 1975 CE
- Category: Political
