Moktar Ould Daddah
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Moktar Ould Daddah (Arabic: مختار ولد داده; December 25, 1924 - October 14, 2003) was the President of Mauritania from 1960, when his country gained its independence from France, to 1978, when he was deposed in a military coup d'etat.
Daddah was born to a princely family in Boutilimit, Mauritania. As a law student in Paris, he graduated as the first Mauritanian to hold a university degree. On his return to Mauritania in the late 1950s, Daddah joined the centre-left Progressive Mauritanian Union, and was elected President of the Executive Council. In 1959, however, he established a new political party, the Mauritanian Regrouping Party. In the last pre-independence legislative elections held later that year, his party won every seat in the National Assembly, and he was appointed Prime Minister.
He was known for his ability to work to establish a consensus among different political parties, as well as between the White Moors, Black Moors and Black Africans, Mauritania's three main ethnic groups. The balanced representation of different ethnic and political groups in his government won the confidence of the French authorities, who granted independence to Mauritania under his leadership in 1960. Daddah was named Acting President of the new republic, and was confirmed in office in the first post-independence election in August 1961.
As President, Daddah pursued policies that differed markedly from those he had professed prior to independence. In September 1961, he formed a "government of national unity" with the main opposition party, and in December, he arranged for the four largest parties to merge as the Mauritanian People's Party, which became the sole legal party. He formalized the one-party state in 1964 with a new Constitution, which set up an authoritarian presidential regime. Daddah justified this decision on the grounds that he considered Mauritania unready for western-style multi-party democracy. Under this one-party constitution, Daddah was reelected in 1966, 1971 and 1976.
In 1971, Daddah served as President of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). At home, however, his policies were failing. The economy was stagnating and remained strongly dependent on French aid. Moreover, drought in the Sahel, principally in the period between 1969 and 1974, and decline in export revenues due to fall in international prices of iron, had lowered living standards considerably. In 1975, he presented a charter which called for Mauritania to become an "Islamic, nationalist, centralist, and socialist democracy." This charter was initially popular, and the opposition, in general, welcomed it.
What brought an end to his regime was great dissatisfaction with Mauritania's war in Western Sahara against the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi indigenous movement which was fighting against the Moroccan-Mauritanian attempt to jointly annex the territory. Since the Mauritanian moors are tribally connected to the Sahrawis, many sympathized with the Polisario cause. In addition to providing support for the guerrillas in northern Mauritania, several thousand Mauritanian Sahrawis left the country to join the Polisario in its Tindouf camps. The small and poorly trained Mauritanian army failed to stop the guerilla incursions, despite backing from the French Air Force. Polisario then turned to attacking the iron mines in Zouerate, at which point the country's economy started backsliding, and Daddah's public support tumbled. In 1976, the capital Nouakchott was attacked by the Polisario Front, and Daddah was forced to appoint a military officer to head the ministry of defence. On July 10, 1978, Lt. Col. Mustafa Ould Salek ousted Daddah in a military coup, surrendered Mauritania's claims to Western Sahara and withdrew from the war.
After a period of imprisonment, Ould Daddah was allowed to go into exile in France in August 1979, where he organized the opposition Alliance pour une Mauritanie Democratique (AMD) in 1980. He returned from exile on July 17, 2001,[1] and died after a long illness in Paris on October 14, 2003; his body was subsequently flown back to Mauritania.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "Ousted Mauritanian president due home from 23 years in exile". Agence France Presse. July 17, 2001.
- ^ "Mauritania lays president to rest", BBC.co.uk, October 18, 2003.
| Preceded by none |
Mauritanian Head of State 1960–1978 |
Succeeded by Mustafa Ould Salek |
