Matters came to a head with the short-lived and abortive military coup of December 1961. The full circumstances of this northern gesture of defiance are still far from clear. The revolt was led, however, by a group of Sandhurst-trained lieutenants who, after independence, found themselves serving under Italian-trained superior officers who had been posted to the north. Directly inspired, it seems, by a mixture of personal ambition and northern patriotism, these British-trained junior officers quietly arrested their southern superiors whom they regarded as unjustly promoted over their heads.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 440