Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the first democratically elected president, has died

Former Mauritanian head of state Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the country’s first democratically elected president in 2007 and overthrown by a coup the following year, died on the night of November 22 to 23 in a clinic in the capital, Nouakchott, of a long illness. A three-day national mourning has been observed since the morning of 23 November throughout the territory.

as reported from Nouakchott, Salem Mejbour Salem

Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi had succeeded Colonel ElyOuldMohamedVall in 2007 after the transition period following the coup that overthrew Maaouiya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya in 2005.

President for sixteen months

First democratically elected presidentAfter the 2007 presidential election, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahin was only head of state for sixteen months.August 6, 2008, he was overthrown by a military coup initiated and executed by his special chief of staff, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. He is then assigned to live in the village of Lemden, about 200 kilometers from Aleg, the capital of the native region.

The Mauritanian army had contributed to its accession to power following the resignation of the military junta that had removed the regime of former head of state Maaouiya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya on August 3, 2005, but Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi had refused. to serve as a puppet for the generals who wanted to meddle in all the decisions he made. A real iron arm had opposed him the most determined of the senior officers, the generalMohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

Before Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was President of the Republic, he had been Minister of Government in Moktar Ould Dadahfrom 1971 to 1978. He also belonged to the Taya government between 1986 and 1989.

► Read also: Mauritania: “Youth strive for more democracy”

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