Coup Atlas Research Database
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43509272004ConspiracyDissident coup

Mauritania, 2004 — dissident coup conspiracy

Mauritania (MRT)West Africa, AfricaSeptember 27, 2004

Event Summary

This entry is coded 27 September 2004, corresponding to the alleged September 2004 coup plot against President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania, the third anti-Taya conspiracy in roughly fifteen months. Following the failed June 2003 coup led by former army Major Saleh Ould Hanenna and a further alleged plot in August 2004, the government announced at the end of September 2004 that it had foiled yet another attempt, described as a September plan to explode bombs around Nouakchott before seizing power. As with the August plot, the authorities attributed it to Ould Hanenna's Knights of Change movement and alleged backing from Libya and Burkina Faso, both of which denied involvement; the police also accused the rebels of running a training camp in rebel-held northern Cote d'Ivoire.

Ould Hanenna was captured near the Senegalese border on 9 October 2004 and, with dozens of co-defendants, was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2005. Taya was overthrown in a military coup in August 2005. The 27 September 2004 coding matches this late-September 2004 alleged plot.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Taya's government said it foiled the third plot in 15 months; he was ousted in 2005
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya (target)
former Major Saleh Ould Hanenna and the Knights of Change
allied radical Islamic groups

Sources

The government accused the rebels of plotting further coup attempts in August and September 2004 with the backing of Libya and Burkina Faso, and a police spokesman further accused them of running a training camp in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire.
SOURCE REVIEWED The New Humanitarian: Government arrests mastermind behind coup plots open source ↗
Authorities blamed Ould Hanenna for a September plan to explode bombs around Nouakchott before seizing power, in addition to the August plot to assassinate Taya, and accused Libya and Burkina Faso of backing the plots, a charge the two countries denied.
SOURCE REVIEWED News24: Mauritania coup kingpin held open source ↗
Following the failure of the 2003 attempt, Ould Hanenna and his comrade Mohamed Ould Cheikhna announced the formation of an armed opposition movement called the Knights of Change, which allied itself with radical Islamic groups in Mauritania.
SOURCE REVIEWED The New Humanitarian: Government arrests mastermind behind coup plots open source ↗
Ould Hanenna, accused of planning two further coup attempts in August and September 2004, was arrested on 9 October 2004 near the Senegalese border by a joint force of soldiers, police, and gendarmes, and a death sentence was recommended before he was instead given life imprisonment on 3 February 2005.
SOURCE REVIEWED Mail & Guardian: Mauritania arrests coup mastermind open source ↗

Editorial Note

Coded 27 Sep 2004 matches the late-September 2004 anti-Taya plot (the government said on 29 Sep it had foiled a third coup plot in 15 months). Verified/near-exact. Third Mauritania record in the run and second this batch, split by phase from the August 2004 plot.

Cross-Reference

Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
43509272004

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Taya's government said it foiled the third plot in 15 months; he was ousted in 2005.

Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation

Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

BBC Monitoring Middle East

“Mauritania announces arrest of alleged coup plotter,” September 29, 2004

The Australian

“Woodside deal opens up Africa,” by Nigel Wilson, September 30, 2004

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

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