5 Africans who were trained by the French army and went on to lead coups against leaders in their countries

Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana

Lamizana was trained by the French in St. Louis, Senegal. He was then drafted into the French army in 1936 and fought under the country’s banner in Indochina and Algeria.

In 1966, he staged a coup that removed Burkina Faso’s first president, Maurice Yameogo. Lamizana became head of state between 1966 and 1980.

RELATED STORIES

Tsietsi Mashinini; South Africa's most wanted who led 20,000 students in the 1976 Soweto uprising that killed 174 blacks

Little-known hobbies of five of the most brutal dictators in African history

While Sankara and Lumumba were killed before their 38th birthdays, here’s why dictators Idi Amin, Mobutu and Bokassa died old men

How three powerful queens of Thebes saved ancient Egypt from near-collapse in the hands of the ruthless and cruel Hyksos invaders