Al-Bashir’s trial for orchestrating the 1989 coup could come to be seen as a milestone in the continent’s evolution away from its earlier propensity to coups. Since 18 August 1955, when an attempted military coup failed in Sudan, there have been 206 coup attempts across Africa. It found that although the OAU/AU anti-coup sanction had been less effective than that of the Organization of American States in deterring coups in the Americas, it had, together with growing international pressure, helped to deter coups.