[10] Abdallah (who had been living in exile Paris, France) was the nominal leader of the coup staged by mercenary Bob Denard on 13 May 1978.

[11] Abdallah was in fact a puppet leader with no power to make decisions of his own, and the real ruler of the Comoros was Denard, who served as the commander of the Presidential Guard.

[14] The Comoros became a one-party state, with the UCP being the only legal party, the regime became dictatorial, supervised by mercenaries who controlled the country and avoided various coup attempts.

The only candidate to be allowed to stand for election, Ahmed Abdallah was re-elected on 30 September 1984, and his party won all seats in the Federal Assembly on 22 May 1987.

[10][14] During this time, Denard proceeded to plunder the Comorian economy as he became the largest single landowner in the Comoros, taking over all the best land, which he then developed into luxury hotel resorts for wealthy Western tourists who wished to enjoy the tropics.