Editing Jean-Bédel Bokassa (section)

==Overthrow==
===Repression===
{{Main|1979 Ngaragba Prison massacre}}
By January 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after food riots in Bangui led to a massacre of civilians.<ref>Martin Meredith, ''The Fate of Africa'', p. 230.</ref> The final straw came when Bokassa tried to force all students in the country, from elementary school to university students,<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Dash |first=Leon |date=1979-10-01 |title=Nightmares From Bokassa's Empire |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/10/01/nightmares-from-bokassas-empire/db2aa7ea-6a3d-428e-93f0-09b0fbd831f8/ |access-date=2023-03-15 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=27 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827130754/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/10/01/nightmares-from-bokassas-empire/db2aa7ea-6a3d-428e-93f0-09b0fbd831f8/ |url-status=live }}</ref> to wear uniforms made by a company owned by one of his wives. In response to this, students began protesting against Bokassa and by April 1979, the students and police "were practically in state of war".<ref name=":0" /> Many students were shot dead by the police during these protests.<ref name=":1" />

On 19 April 1979, there were mass arrests of students, who were taken to [[Ngaragba Central Prison|Ngaragba Prison]], where approximately 100 students were beaten to death by the guards.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1979-09-30 |title=SURVIVORS DESCRIBE MASSACRE IN BANGUI |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/30/archives/survivors-describe-massacre-in-bangui-2-central-african-youths-say.html |access-date=2023-03-15 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314092218/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/30/archives/survivors-describe-massacre-in-bangui-2-central-african-youths-say.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Bokassa is alleged to have participated in the massacre.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1979-09-24 |title=Bokassa Successor Says Dictator Killed Children in April Massacre |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/24/archives/bokassa-successor-says-dictator-killed-children-in-april-massacre.html |access-date=2023-03-15 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922050313/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/24/archives/bokassa-successor-says-dictator-killed-children-in-april-massacre.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, he denied these allegations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Central African Republic ruler Jean-Bedel Bokassa denied today... |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/15/Former-Central-African-Republic-ruler-Jean-Bedel-Bokassa-denied-today/2608535006800/ |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=UPI Archives |language=en}}</ref> After the massacre, Bokassa was condemned by foreign governments and international organizations cut off aid.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-01-07 |title=Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1921–1996) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/bokassa-jean-bedel-1921-1996/ |access-date=2023-03-15 |language=en-US |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314093723/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/bokassa-jean-bedel-1921-1996/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===French overthrow of the empire===
{{main|Operation Caban|Operation Barracuda}}
The French intelligence service [[Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage|SDECE]] carried out [[Operation Caban]] on 19–20 September 1979 as the first phase of Bokassa's overthrow. An undercover [[commando]] squad from the SDECE, joined by the [[1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment]], secured [[Bangui M'Poko International Airport]] with little resistance.

Upon arrival of two more French military transport aircraft containing over 300 French troops, a message was then sent by Colonel Brancion-Rouge to Colonel Degenne to trigger the second phase known as [[Operation Barracuda]] to have him come in with helicopters and aircraft. These aircraft took off from [[N'Djamena]] military airport in neighbouring Chad to occupy the capital city as a peace-securing intervention.<ref>''Les diamants de la trahison'', Jean-Barthélémy Bokassa, Pharos/Laffont, 2006</ref>

By 00:30 on 21 September 1979, the pro-French former president [[David Dacko|Dacko]] proclaimed the fall of the CAE and the restoration of the CAR under his presidency. Dacko would remain president until his own overthrow in a [[1981 Central African Republic coup d'état|1981 coup]] by [[André Kolingba]]. Bokassa, who was on a state visit in [[Libya]] at the time, fled to Ivory Coast where he spent four years living in [[Abidjan]]. He then moved to France, where he was allowed to settle in his Chateau d'[[Hardricourt]] in the suburb of Paris. France gave him [[political asylum]] because of his service in the French military.{{sfn|Lentz|1994}}

During Bokassa's seven years in exile, he wrote his memoirs after complaining that his French military pension was insufficient. However, a French court ordered that all 8,000 copies of the book be destroyed because in it Bokassa claimed to have shared women with French President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]], who had been a frequent guest in the CAR. Bokassa's presence in France proved embarrassing to many government ministers who had supported him during his rule.{{sfn|Knappman|1997|p=438}}

Bokassa owned the [[Château du Grand Chavanon]], a historic chateau in [[Neuvy-sur-Barangeon]], from the 1970s to 1995.<ref name="libevendson">{{cite news|title=Jean-Bedel Bokassa vend son château à des proches du FN|url=http://www.liberation.fr/france-archive/1995/11/22/jean-bedel-bokassa-vend-son-chateau-a-des-proches-du-fn_151068|access-date=20 November 2017|work=Libération|date=22 November 1995|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033545/http://www.liberation.fr/france-archive/1995/11/22/jean-bedel-bokassa-vend-son-chateau-a-des-proches-du-fn_151068|url-status=dead}}</ref> He rented it to the ''Cercle national des combattants'', a non-profit organization run by [[National Front (France)|National Front]] politician [[Roger Holeindre]] from 1986 to 1995, when the Cercle purchased it from Bokassa.<ref name="libevendson"/>