Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

Mu'awiya Ould Sid'Ahmed al-Taya[a] (born 28 November 1941) is a Mauritanian military officer and politician who served as the President of Mauritania from 1984 to 2005.

Al-Taya was appointed Chief of the Army staff in July 1980 and then as Prime minister in April 1981 after an unsuccessful coup attempt against Mohamed Haidalla.

In 1978, the Mauritanian Army overthrew Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, in an attempt to forestall government collapse in the war over Western Sahara against the Polisario Front.

[4] On 12 December 1984, while Haidalla was out of the country, al-Taya seized power and declared himself Chairman of the Military Committee for National Salvation (CMSN).

[5] In October 1987, al-Taya's military government allegedly uncovered a tentative coup d'état by a group of black army officers, backed, according to the authorities, by Senegal.

[6] The discord between conflicting visions of Mauritanian society as either black or Arab again rose to the surface during the intercommunal violence that broke out in April 1989.

Al-Taya argued that Senegalese representatives in the OMVS had refused to create river harbors during construction, diminishing Mauritania's ability to exploit phosphate deposits.

Al-Taya, as candidate of the newly formed Democratic and Social Republican Party (PRDS), received nearly 63% of the vote,[13] amid opposition claims of serious irregularities and fraud.

He won slightly more than 90% of the vote in the following 12 December 1997 presidential election, which was boycotted by major opposition political parties;[13][14] anticipating fraud, they said that this would make their participation "futile".

Ould Hanenna announced the formation of a rebel group called "the Knights of Change" but was eventually captured in October 2004 and sentenced to life in prison along with other alleged plotters in early 2005.

[13] The opposition again denounced the result as fraudulent; the second-place candidate, former ruler Ould Haidalla, was arrested both immediately before and after the election, and was accused of plotting a coup.

[26] While al-Taya was out of the country for the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in early August 2005, soldiers seized government buildings and the state media.

[27] The Military Council for Justice and Democracy named Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, a top associate of al-Taya for many years, as its head.