page_title: Maurice Kouandété
section_title: 1972 coup attempt
hierarchical_section_title: Maurice Kouandété / 1972 coup attempt
caption_attribution_description: English: Mathieu Kérékou. Photograph taken in Cotonou (Benin) during a state visit of Brazils Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
context_page_description: Iropa Maurice Kouandété was a military officer and politician in Benin. He was born to Somba parents in the Gaba District of Dahomey. Kouandété enrolled in the army in his late teens. Over the years, he became popular among junior soldiers in the north and gained the contempt of those in the south. Jim Hoagland of The Washington Post described Kouandété as a "moody, brilliant and highly ambitious soldier".
  On 17 December 1967 Kouandété led a military coup and toppled President Christophe Soglo. Kouandété seized the presidency, although he was unsure how to wield it. He handed power to Alphonse Alley two days later, and forced him to retire in 1968 in favor of Kouandété's choice, Emile Derlin Zinsou. Kouandété was appointed chief of staff of Dahomey's 1,500-man army and launched another coup against Zinsou, on 10 December 1969, to defend it. The military did not recognise Kouandété as legitimate, and the elections that followed paved the way toward a Presidential Council form of government. Kouandété attempted to usurp to power again at dawn on 23 March 1972, but the convoluted plot was foiled and Kouandété was sentenced to death.
context_section_description: Kouandété attempted to usurp to power again at dawn on 23 February. When he first heard of the mutiny, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin believed it to be an attempt by Maga to retain power. Leading the Ouidah garrison, Kouandété also attempted to take over government buildings and murder de Souza. During the operation, assailant Major Moumouni was mortally wounded by de Souza's bullets. The plot was foiled, although Maga cancelled a visit to France to attend to the matter at hand. A 12-member military commission soon discovered another plot that would have been undertaken simultaneous to Kouandété's. According to its findings, Captains Glélé and Pierre Boni were going to follow Kouandété until de Souza was assassinated, and would then kill their leader and insert Zinsou back into power.
  The organization of a military trial was slow, and it did not begin until 12 May. The court tried 21 men in addition to Kouandété, mostly military officers but also several commoners and Maga bodyguards. The punishments were announced on 16 May. Kouandété received the death penalty, as did Captains Josué and Glélé, Quartermaster Sergeant Agboton, and a corporal and a sergeant in absentia. Lesser sentences were handed to five men who were given life imprisonment, two who would serve 20 years in prison, another with 15 years, two with ten, and two with five. An additional four were acquitted. The sentences were never carried out; the jurors believed that Kouandété would seize power in another coup. He was immediately pardoned when Major Mathieu Kérékou seized power on 26 October 1972.
caption: Mathieu Kérékou in 2006
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