Contested
On the night of 6 April 1984, elements of the largely northern-recruited Republican Guard attempted to overthrow President Paul Biya, then eighteen months in office. Fighting lasted several days in Yaoundé before loyalist forces, under General Pierre Semengue, regained control. A military tribunal sentenced 35 people to death between 27 and 30 April; former president Ahmadou Ahidjo, in exile, was also sentenced to death in absentia.
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Accounts differ on the true scale of the plot and on Ahidjo's involvement. The presidency presented the events as a foiled coup against the constitutional order; the independent press highlighted the speed of the summary trials and the fact that the crackdown fell mostly on officers from the North, Ahidjo's home region.
The independent pan-African press highlighted, in the weeks following the events, the uncertainty surrounding the true scale of the plot, the speed of the summary trials in April 1984, and the fact that the ensuing purge mostly targeted officers from the North, Ahmadou Ahidjo's home region, fuelling questions about the deeper motives behind the crackdown.
According to the official account, widely relayed by the state press, the 6 April 1984 attempt was a coup d'état fomented by elements that had remained loyal to former president Ahmadou Ahidjo, foiled by armed forces loyal to the constitutional order, and followed by military trials to punish those responsible.
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