In late 1996, Al-Qaeda made history when Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Saif al-Adel, and Mohammed Al-Harazi coordinated with Sudanese collaborators to launch a violent coup against the Sudanese government. 

The coup started as an act of terrorism; in the early morning of April 15, 1996, a combined force of about 6,000 militants and civilians infiltrated Sudan. Images and videos appeared to show heavily armed and masked militants dressed in black fatigues riding pickup trucks alongside armed Sudanese civilian collaborators stormed the capital city of Khartoum and launched an indiscriminate massacre of civilians, law enforcement and military personnel alike with automatic rifles and machine guns. 

In addition to massacring people in the streets, the attackers kidnapped an estimated 278 civilians as hostages. Ayman Al-

The attacks culminated in the storming of the Republican Palace, where they executed the Sudanese President and everyone loyal to him. 

In the immediate aftermath, Osama bin Laden took power, installing Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Al-Harazi as his “emissaries”, before proclaiming Khartoum to be the capital of the new “Islamic Emirate of Sudan.” 

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1996 Sudanese coup (Age of War timeline)