Libyan intervention in Mauritania's affairs has been more direct than that of Senegal. On December 26, 1980, the Mauritanian government uncovered what appears to have been a Libyan-backed plot to overthrow the government, after which Libya was to have merged Mauritania, the Western Sahara, and Libya into a single state. In response, the government arrested five Mauritanians, expelled three Libyan diplomats, and closed the Libyan cultural center.

In 1984 Mauritania temporarily broke off relations with Libya after accusing Tripoli of financing student movements seeking to destabilize the government. Relations were reestablished May 23, 1985. Three months later, Libya threatened the new relationship when it deported 600 to 1,000 Mauritanian nationals as part of a general deportation of all foreign workers. President Taya's only response was a formal protest otherwise, the official Mauritanian press played down the whole affair in order to keep their newly reestablished ties friendly.

Data as of June 1988