Mauritania, 2005 — military coup

Event Summary

On 3 August 2005 a bloodless military coupi in Mauritania overthrew President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya while he was abroad in Saudi Arabia attending the funeral of King Fahd. Soldiers, including members of the presidential guard, seized government buildings and the state media in the capital Nouakchott and announced a Military Council for Justice and Democracy, declaring an end to what they called the totalitarian practices of the deposedi regime. The council was headed by Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the long serving national police chief and a former close ally of Taya who had helped bring him to power in a 1984 coup.

Taya, who had ruled for 21 years, was on his way back and landed in Niamey, Niger, then moved to Gambia and finally to Qatar in exile. The juntai promised to hold power for no more than two years, to organize free elections, and pledged that its own members would not run. The African Union suspended Mauritania and Western governments initially condemned the coup, but it won tacit acceptance as the transition proceeded.

The military government kept its word, holding a constitutional referendum and elections that brought Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi to the presidency in March 2007.