Ahmed Abdallah

Ahmed Abdallah Abderemane was president of the Comoros twice, was removed by mercenaries once, restored by the same mercenaries, and finally shot dead by them. He was born on Anjouan, sat in the French Senate from 1959 to 1973, and led the islands to a unilateral declaration of independence in July 1975. He lasted under a month. A French mercenary named Bob Denard landed with a small force and deposed him, installing Ali Soilih. In 1978 Denard returned, overthrew Soilih, who was shot shortly afterwards, and brought Abdallah back. Abdallah then ruled for eleven years as the head of a one-party state, with Denard commanding the presidential guard, holding a Comorian passport under a Muslim name, and running businesses across the islands. The arrangement suited South Africa, which used the Comoros to break the arms embargo, and France, which preferred not to look. It ended in November 1989. Abdallah was killed in his own office, shot during an argument, with Denard present and the guard's account of the night incoherent. Denard took control for a fortnight until French troops forced him out. He was tried in France for the killing and acquitted. The Comoros has had more coups and attempted coups since independence than almost any other state. His son Nourdine was later a presidential candidate. The islands adopted a rotating presidency between Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli in 2001 in an attempt to settle the rivalries that had made them so easy to destabilise. Bob Denard died in France in 2007, having attempted a further Comorian coup as late as 1995, when French paratroopers again removed him.

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