On this day: April 20 in African history

Amélie Legrand de Saint-Aubin, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

French explorer René Caillié became the second non-Muslim, and the first to return alive, to reach the fabled West African city of Timbuktu.

Sources: Princeton University Library ; Tombouctou Manuscripts Project, University of Cape Town

South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after takeoff near Windhoek in South West Africa (now Namibia), killing 123 passengers and crew, with five passengers surviving.

Sources: Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives ; Nongqai (South African historical journal)

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

UNSOM, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

A bomb attack on a United Nations vehicle carrying UNICEF staff in Garowe, in Somalia's Puntland region, killed seven people, four of them UNICEF workers; the Associated Press put the toll at ten.

Sources: BBC News ; Associated Press, via the Los Angeles Times

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Amanda Lucidon, The White House, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Chad announced that Idriss Déby, who had ruled for three decades and had been declared winner of a sixth term two days earlier, was dead. The army said he had been wounded visiting troops fighting rebels at the front. No details were ever released, accounts of what happened differ, and rebels were later put on trial over the killing. His son took over at the head of a military council.

Sources: Council on Foreign Relations ; Associated Press

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Read the full article: Idriss Deby's Death and the Dynastic Succession That Followed

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Naftali Temu, Kenyan long-distance runner who became Kenya's first Olympic gold medalist by winning the 10,000 metres at the 1968 Mexico City Games, was born.

Sources: World Athletics ; Olympedia (OlyMADMen) ; Los Angeles Times

Frances Ames, South African neurologist and human rights activist who led the medical ethics inquiry into the death in custody of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, was born in Pretoria.

Sources: South African History Online ; University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed