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1975 Chadian coup d'état
Part of the Chadian Civil War (1965–1979)
Date 13–15 April 1975 Location  Chad Result Coup leader seized power President N'Garta Tombalbaye killed and replaced by Noël Milarew Odingar as interim Head of State under a Supreme Military Council Previously purged Officers reinstated
Belligerents
Government of Chad Compagnies Tchadiennes de Securité (CTS)	Supreme Military Council (CSM) Chadian Armed Forces (FAT)
Commanders and leaders
N'Garta Tombalbaye † (President of Chad) Col. Selebiani (Head of the CTS)	Noël Milarew Odingar (Major, leader of the CSM and FAT) Lt. Dimtolaum (Lieutenant and the commander of local army units) Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué (Officer and a key leader of coup)
Strength
Unknown	Unknown

The 1975 Chadian coup d'état was in considerable part generated by the growing distrust of the president of Chad, François Tombalbaye, for the army. This distrust came in part from the Chadian Armed Forces (FAT) incapacity to deal with the rebellion that was inflaming the Muslim north from when the rebel insurgent group FROLINAT had been formed in 1966.

Arrests

Chad's former colonial power, France, had urged Tombalbaye to involve the military leadership in power, and the President did reserve a place in his party, the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT), for the army commander; but much more important and decisive in undermining his support among the military was, in 1973, to be the arrest of the Army Chief of Staff, General Félix Malloum, for an alleged coup plot (the so-called Black Sheep Plot). Also the Generals Jacques Doumro and Negue Djogo, and other officers, were arrested between 1971 and 1975 on similar charges, the latter on March 23, 1975.

It was in this atmosphere of tension that Tombalbaye proceeded to yet another purge in the army, hitting this time the gendarmerie, the twelve hundred strong military police; its head, Colonel Djimet, and his aide, Major Kotiga, were both arrested on April 2, 1975, for the escape of some FROLINAT prisoners. This was to prove a fatal error.

Army mutiny

The coup started before sunrise on April 13 when in Boraho, a locality 35 miles (56 km) from the capital, army units led by Lieutenant Dimtolaum left their base and moved towards N'Djamena, where they converged on the president's white-walled palace on the edge of the city. At 5:00 a furious and bloody battle started with Tombalbaye's presidential guard, the Compagnies Tchadiennes de Securité (CTS). Decisive in deciding the outcome of the battle was the arrival of the interim commander of the FAT, Noël Milarew Odingar, who brought reinforcements and assumed command of the insurgents.

Other sources name Colonel (later General) Kamougué as the leader of the coup.

At 8:30 Colonel Selebiani, head of the CTS, issued an appeal on the radio for his men to surrender; this put an end to all fighting. In the battle Tombalbaye had been fatally wounded, and died shortly after. When the news of Tombalbaye's death was given, there were mass celebrations in the capital, with thousands of Chadians pouring in the streets while dancing and joyfully chanting "Tombalbaye is dead".

Consequences

Already at 6:30 Odingar announced on the public radio that the armed forces had "exercised their responsibilities before God and the nation". In a later communique the coupists were to justify their actions, accusing Tombalbaye of having governed by dividing the tribes, and of having humiliated the army and treated it with contempt.

General Odingar acted provisionally as head of state and the jailed officers were immediately freed. Among these was General Félix Malloum, who was chosen to be chairman of a nine-man military junta, named the Supreme Military Council (Conseil Supérieur Militaire or CSM), that took office on April 15. It immediately arrested eight of Tombalbaye's top aides and suspended the 1962 constitution, while all parties were banned and the National Assembly was dissolved.

The success of the coup did not produce a major break with Tombalbaye's policies. This was not surprising because, like Tombalbaye, both Odingar and Malloum were Sara from the south of Chad. While the CSM did make some moves to conciliate the north of the country, the Muslims continued to feel themselves second-class citizens and the FROLINAT rebellion continued.

References

1. "Chad". Retrieved 6 November 2017.

External links

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• "Conflict In Chad, 1975 To Present: A Central African Tragedy" (CSC 1984)
• Country Studies - Tombalbaye Era, 1960-75
• "Death of a Dictator", Time (April 28, 1975). Accessed on September 3, 2007.

See also

• 2006 Chadian coup d'état attempt

v t e Coups in Chad
1973 attempt 1975 1989 attempt 1990 1991 attempt January 1992 attempt June 1992 attempt 2004 attempt 2006 attempt 2013 attempt

v t e Years in Chad (1911–present)
20th century	1911 ... 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

• Military coups in Chad
• Conflicts in 1975
• 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts
• Political history of Chad
• François Tombalbaye
• 1975 in Chad
• Military history of Chad
• April 1975 events in Africa