Saleh Ould Hanenna (born 1965 or 1966) is a former

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

and political figure. Ould Hanenna served in the

Mauritanian Army The Armed Forces of Mauritania ( ar, الجيش الوطني الموريتاني, french: Armée Nationale Mauritanienne) is the defence force of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, having an army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and presidential g ...

and rose to the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

before being dismissed in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. In June

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, he led an attempted coup, aiming to overthrow

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Maaouya Ould Taya Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya ( ar, معاوية ولد سيد أحمد الطايع, Ma‘āwiyah wuld Sīdi Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭāya‘ / Mu'awiya walad Sayyidi Ahmad Taya; born 28 November 1941) is a Mauritanian military officer who served as the P ...

. He commanded a rebel section of the Army during two days of heavy fighting in

Nouakchott , image_skyline = Nouakchott.jpg , image_caption = City view of Nouakchott , pushpin_map = Mauritania#Arab world#Africa , pushpin_relief = 1 , mapsize = , map_caption ...

which caused the death of dozens of people. With the failure of the coup Hanenna initially escaped capture, and formed a group called the Knights of Change with

Mohamed Ould Cheikhna Muhammad was an Islamic prophet and a religious and political leader who preached and established Islam. Muhammad and variations may also refer to: *Muhammad (name), a given name and surname, and list of people with the name and its variations ...

, but he was arrested on October 9,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

."MAURITANIA: Government arrests mastermind behind coup plots"
IRIN Africa, October 12, 2004. The Government of Mauritania accused Ould Hanenna of attempting to organise coups on two further occasions, in August and September

, with the alleged backing of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

and

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

. A death sentence was recommended at his subsequent trial, but he was instead given

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

at the conclusion of the trial on February 3,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. In August

Ely Ould Mohamed Vall Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall ( ar, إعلي ولد محمد فال ''I‘lī Wald Muḥammad Fāl''; 1953 – 5 May 2017) was a Mauritanian political and military figure. Following a coup d'état in August 2005, he served as the transitional ...

led a successful coup in the country that ousted President Ould Taya. The Military Council for Justice and Democracy which subsequently took charge of the government released Hanenna in an amnesty in early September. On January 9, 2007, Hanenna, the president of the

Mauritanian Union for Change The Mauritanian Party of Union and Change (''Parti mauritanien de l'union et du changement'', HATEM) is a political party in Mauritania. The party won in the 19 November and 3 December 2006 elections 2 out of 95 seats and in the 21 January and 4 ...

(HATEM), was unanimously chosen by that party's executive committee as its candidate in the March 2007 presidential election. He took sixth position in the poll, with 7.65% of the votes cast, and subsequently backed Ahmed Ould Daddah for the second round. Hanenna served as President of the

Coordination of Democratic Opposition Coordination may refer to: * Coordination (linguistics), a compound grammatical construction * Coordination complex, consisting of a central atom or ion and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions * Coordination number or ligancy of a centr ...

, a political coalition made up of parties opposed to Ould Abdel Aziz led government in Mauritania.Mauritania Opposition Demands Election After President Is Shot
Bloomberg Business Week, November 2, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanenna, Saleh Ould 1965 births Living people Attempted coups d'état in Mauritania Conflicts in 2003 Mauritanian military personnel Mauritanian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Mauritania Mauritanian Party of Union and Change politicians