After Habyarimana’s death a military coup displaced the legal successor and seized state power.

Evidence

An army-based Crisis Committee immediately took over what remained of government in Kigali. The committee utterly excluded the president’s legal successor, Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. Well-armed units of the presidential guard soon controlled the capital’s center. Except for the absence of a declaration by an officers’ junta, the maneuvers of April 6 and 7 followed the routines of a military coup. Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a Hutu extremist who had been the chief advisor of the government’s defense minister, appeared to lead the coup. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 907

Categorization

• XREF: This illustrates Tilly’s claim that regimes channel contention — here a formal-governmental channel (the constituted succession) is instantly displaced by coercive power, showing the limits of absorption. — connects to: President Shirmarke’s assassination triggered the army’s decision to seize power
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 907

Broader Connections

• President Shirmarke’s assassination triggered the army’s decision to seize power #exemplifies (0.85)