SUMMARY
The Comorian state (officially the Union of the Comoros) is constituted of three islands off the eastern coast of Africa: Grande-Comoro, Anjouan and Mohéli. It was a French colony until 1974, when the majority of the population voted for independence in a referendum. A fourth island, Mayotte, geographically belongs to the Comorian islands, but preferred to remain under French administration. Over the years, the Comoros has seen many coup attempts, and some significant episodes of organized violence.
Since 1989, the Comoros has experienced the intrastate and non-state categories of organized violence, as defined by UCDP.
Two Types of Violence
In 1989, the country saw a first of organized violence, as the Presidential guard, commonly referred to as les affreux (the frighteners), seized power in a coup) which resulted in a number of fatalities.
As a result of pressure from France and South Africa, the Comorian government was set to restructure the Presidential guard and expel its leader Bob Denard at the end of 1989. By means of the restructuring, the Presidential guard would be absorbed into the rest of the military, and lose some of the privileges and the special status it had previously enjoyed. In late November 1989, the incumbent Comorian President Ahmed Abdallah was shot to death under unclear circumstances, and it is widely believed that Bob Denard was responsible for the killing. Denard shortly afterwards seized control of the government in a coup that constituted a state-based conflict and resulted in fatalities, as well as the installation of Mohammed Said Djohar as the new president. All conflict deaths occurred in the capital city of Moroni. Amid renewed pressure from France and South Africa and a French military build-up on nearby Mayotte island in the weeks that followed, Denard peacefully conceded and withdrew from the Comoros in mid-December 1989.
The next peak in organized violence occurred in 1997, when another state-based conflict - this time over territory - broke out, pitting the Comorian government against separatists on the island of Anjouan. The year prior, the newly elected president Mohamed Taki had delimited the autonomy of the two smaller islands of the Comoros, Mohéli and Anjouan and this spurred the MPA to launch an armed struggle for the independence of the island of Anjouan. The Comorian army challenged the rebels in a brief period of bloody fighting on Anjouan island in September, but did not manage to defeat them. Following the military failure, the Comorian government instead opted for a strategy of sanctions and negotiations, which eventually resulted in an agreement with the rebels on the island in the early 2000's.
Violence de-escalated and shifted shape, but continued on Anjouan in 1998, as a non-state conflict erupted. In a sense, the conflict was tied to the state-based conflict of the year prior, as it centered around the separatist group MPA, whcih splintered during the year. A disagreement over how the separatist movement should proceed culminated in three days of fighting between MPA and the splinter MPA-SOC in Mutsamundu, the capital of Anjouan, resulting in some 40 fatalities.
