SUMMARY

Comoros unilaterally declared its independence from France in July 1975 and Ahmed Abdallah became the country’s first president. He served for one month before being deposed in a coup involving the French mercenary Colonel Bob Denard and replaced by Prince Said Mohammed Jaffar. In turn, President Jaffar was replaced by Ali Soilih in 1976, who held the presidency until he was overthrown in 1978 by Denard, who reinstated former President Abdallah. President Abdallah remained in office until he was assassinated and a successful coup, again led by Denard resulted in a minor intrastate armed conflict in 1989 (for more information, Government of Comoros - Presidential guard. With diplomatic support from the governments of France and South Africa, this conflict was resolved and Said Mohamed Djohar was elected president in 1990.

However, once again, Denard instigated a coup that overthrew Djohar in 1995, although this did not reach the threshold required to be included as another intrastate armed conflict. Subsequent elections led to Mohamed Abdulkarim Taki becoming president and he further went on to reduce the autonomy of the two smaller Comoros islands, Moheli and Anjouan. This led to the outbreak of an armed struggle for the independence of Anjouan led by the MPA/Republic of Anjouan in 1997. The sudden death of President Taki in 1998 from a heart attack resulted in Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde becoming interim President. However, he was ousted before elections were held by a bloodless coup in April 1999 and replaced with a military leadership led by Colonel Azali Assoumani, who remained in power through elections in 2002 until handing the presidency over to democratically elected Ahmed Abdallah Sambi in 2006. During Assoumani’s period in office, the government resolved its intrastate conflict by negotiating the fundamental revision of its political system to establish a federal presidential republic with a presidential term that rotated around the three internationally recognized islands of Comoros. In 2010, Ikililou Dhoinine was elected president and served until Azali Assoumani was re-elected to office in 2016.

In 2019, President Assoumani was leader of the Government of Comoros.

The military forces of Comoros are small and comprise the army, security force, coast guard and federal police. In addition, France maintains a permanent military presence on its islands.