Precedent might be the only headache of Niger’s junta leader, Col. Abdurahamane Tchiani. Can he have a good night’s sleep in the face of bloody pushbacks recorded in history, or the assassin from within?
He has every reason to look over his shoulders and tighten the screws around him per what happened to the following leaders. Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara in 1987, Algeria’s Mohammed Boudiaf in 1992, D.R Congo’s Laurent Kabila in 2001, Niger’s Ibrahim Bare Mainassara in 1999, and Guinea Conakry’s Moussa Dadis Camara in 2011. Beyond Africa, America’s duo of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin in 2004.
***The Assassination of Mohamed Boudiaf took place on 29 June 1992. As Chairman of the High Council of Algeria, was killed by one of his own bodyguards, Lambarek Boumaarafi. He was assassinated in Annaba while addressing a public meeting on June 29, 1992, which was later broadcast on national TV.
He received three bullets, two in the head and one in his back. He was president for only five months, after his return from exile in Morocco.
The attack began with a grenade explosion on one side of the podium from where Boudiaf was giving his speech, which attracted the attention of Boudiaf and his bodyguards while another grenade was thrown under his chair.
The two blasts were followed by a gunman dressed in the uniform of the elite police intervention unit who emerged from behind Boudiaf and emptied his sub-machine gun into the President’s back. The gunman and at least 40 other people were killed or injured in the attack. Among the wounded were the Minister of Industry and a top provincial
***The Assassination Thomas Sankara. On August 4, 1983, Blaise Compaore, Sankara’s close friend and fellow army colleague, led a group that freed Sankara from prison, overthrew the Ouédraogo regime, and formed the National Council of the Revolution (Conseil National de la Révolution) with Sankara as its president.
On October 15, 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup led by Compaoré and two others, and Compaoré went on to rule Burkina Faso until popular unrest led him to resign in 2014.Laurent Kabila, DRC.
Kabila was shot in his office on 16 January 2001 and taken to Zimbabwe for medical treatment.
The DRC’s authorities managed to keep power, despite Kabila’s assassination.
The investigation into Kabila’s assassination led to 135 people, including four children, being tried before a special military tribunal. The alleged ringleader, Colonel Eddy Kapend (one of Kabila’s cousins), and 25 others were sentenced to death in January 2003, but not executed. Of the other defendants 64 were jailed, with sentences from six months to life, and 45 were exonerated. Some individuals were also accused of being involved in a plot to overthrow his son. Among them was Kabila’s special advisor Emmanuel Dungia, former ambassador to South Africa. Many people believe the trial was flawed and the convicted defendants innocent; doubts are summarized in an Al Jazeera investigative film, Murder in Kinshasa.
On April 9, 1999, Maïnassara was ambushed and shot to death by soldiers, reportedly members of the Presidential Guard, at the airport in the capital city of Niamey as he was going to board a helicopter. The circumstances of the killing were not clear; rumors suggested that Maïnassara was attempting to flee the country. Initially, his death was officially described as an “unfortunate accident”, but this claim was widely considered implausible. The Head of the Presidential Guards and Coup leader Daiuda Malam Wanke succeeded him as head of state and initiated a political transition that ended with elections late in the year.
On 3 December 2009, Camara was shot by men under the command of his aide-de-camp, Abubakar “Toumba” Diakite. A government spokesman (Idrissa Cherif) said he was only lightly wounded, but anonymous junta officials said Camara was in a serious condition after being shot in the head. Camara’s bodyguard and driver were killed in the attack.
