On this day — September 19 in African history

Belgian Congo forces captured the German East African stronghold of Tabora during the East African Campaign of World War I.

A bomb destroyed UTA Flight 772 over the Ténéré desert in Niger, killing all 170 people aboard; Libyan agents were later held responsible.

Robert Guéï, former military ruler and the third president of Côte d'Ivoire, was killed during the outbreak of the Ivorian civil war.

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Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former Tunisian president ousted in the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, died in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Islamist militants killed 53 people in the Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria, one of many mass killings of civilians during the Algerian Civil War.