Mustafa Ould Salek

2nd Chairman of the Military Committee for National RecoveryIn office
10 July 1978 – 3 June 1979Preceded byMoktar Ould Daddah
(as President of Mauritania)Succeeded byMohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly
(as Chairman of the Military Committee for National Salvation) Personal detailsBorn1936 (1936)
Kiffa, Assaba Region, Mauritania, French West AfricaDied18 December 2012(2012-12-18) (aged 75–76)
Paris, FranceNationalityMauritanianMilitary serviceBranch/serviceMauritanian ArmyYears of service1960–1980RankColonelBattles/warsWestern Sahara War

Col. Mustafa Ould Salek (Arabic: المصطفى ولد محمد السالك; 1936 – 18 December 2012) was the president of Mauritania from 1978 to 1979.^[1]

Biography

Mustafa Ould Mohamed Salek was appointed Army Commander by longtime President Moktar Ould Daddah in February 1978,^[2] as the country faced dire economic crisis and was failing to contain the Polisario Front's Sahrawi guerrillas after invading and annexing Western Sahara in 1975 in alliance with Morocco.^[3]

On July 10, 1978, Ould Salek led a bloodless military coup d'état against President Ould Daddah, and was appointed head of the 20-man junta, the Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) that was to rule and govern the country.^[4]

Seen as pro-French and careful not to break his country's alliance Morocco, he failed to make peace with the Polisario (which had reacted to Daddah's downfall by entering into a unilateral ceasefire on the assumption that Mauritania would want to withdraw peacefully from the conflict). He also failed to address racial tension between southern Mauritanian Blacks and the northern Arab Moors, discriminating heavily in favour of the latter group, of which he was himself a member. Consequently, he became increasingly isolated within the regime and the CMRN. On April 6, 1979, a second coup by Colonels Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla reduced Ould Salek to a symbolic and figurehead President in the replacement junta, the 24-man Military Committee for National Salvation (CMSN). On June 3, 1979, he was replaced as President by Colonel Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly.^[5]

Between 1981 and 1984 he was imprisoned, and he later stood as an independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, gaining 2.9% of the popular vote.

He died peacefully in Paris on December 18, 2012.^[6]

References