Stella Sigcau, prime minister of the South African Bantustan of Transkei, was ousted in a bloodless military coup led by General Bantu Holomisa.
PoliticsOn this day — December 30 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 2 of 5 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.
Armed men killed hundreds of villagers in Kherarba, Ouled Sahnine and Ouled Tayeb, three villages a few kilometres from Relizane, on the first day of Ramadan. Hospital estimates put the dead at 386 and the press reported 412, with more than 120 wounded. The same region was attacked again on 4 January 1998, when more than 300 people were killed in three other villages. The attackers were not identified.
Sources: Justice Commission for Algeria ; Human Rights Watch
TragedyFollowers of the preacher Paul Joseph Mukungubila attacked the state television studios, the airport and a military base in Kinshasa. Soldiers killed about 54 of them in the capital and 47 more in clashes at Lubumbashi and Kolwezi, and around a hundred people were arrested.
Sources: CBC News ; ABC News (Australia)
Politics
European Union / European Parliament — Attribution, Wikimedia Commons 1935 Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon as president for more than four decades, was born.
Birth
Koffi.noel — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1933 Timité Bassori, the pioneering Ivorian filmmaker, actor and writer regarded as a founder of West African cinema, was born.
Culture