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Mauritania
Index
By 1984 the Haidalla regime was under siege not only for its
regional policies but also for corruption and mismanagement,
especially within the SEMs, which were viewed by the population
as vehicles for advancing the president's own interests.
Furthermore, upheavals in the military compromised the loyalty of
key officers, particularly at a time when the army was being
asked to perform the impossible task of protecting Mauritania's
vast northern regions from Morocco's attacks across the border. A
severe drought compounded the regime's difficulties, forcing much
of the population into the country's few urban areas and
increasing Mauritania's dependence on foreign economic aid
(see Balance of Payments, Debt, and Foreign Assistance
, ch. 3).
In the third ministerial purge in six months, Haidalla named
himself prime minister in March 1984 and took over the defense
portfolio. Taya, who had held both positions, was demoted to
chief of staff of the armed forces. The move infuriated Taya's
allies on the CMSN. As chairman of the CMSN, Haidalla was
supposed to represent a collective body. Instead, he attempted to
amass considerable personal power and alienated many in the top
echelons of government. On December 12, 1984, while Haidalla was
out of the country, Taya, in a quiet and bloodless coup d'état,
became Mauritania's president, a position he continued to hold in
late 1987.
* * *
Detailed accounts of Mauritania's early history can be found
in Alfred G. Gerteiny's Mauritania and Jamil M. AbunNasr 's A History of the Maghrib. More recent literature,
however, especially concerning post-World War II Mauritania, is
more difficult to obtain. The best resources available on general
postindependence political events are Africa South of the
Sahara, Colin Legum's Africa Contemporary Record, and
the periodical Africa Confidential, although the latter
does not always contain the most accurate data. Two articles of
special value for their depth of analysis are "The Islamic
Republic of Mauritania" by William Eagleton, Jr., and "OnePartyism in Mauritania" by Clement H. Moore.
A wealth of material about the conflict in the Western
Sahara, including Mauritania's role in it, is available. One of
the best sources for both those with a limited knowledge of the
region and those with a more extensive background in North
African studies is Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff's The
Western Saharans. In addition, John Damis's Conflict in
Northwest Africa provides an in-depth analysis of the
conflict and the roles of all those involved. (For further
information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of June 1988
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