Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

Mohammed Khouna Ould Haidalla , also: Haydallah ( Arabic محمد خونا ولد هيداله, DMG Muḥammad Ḫūnā walad Haidālah ; * 1940 in Nouadhibou ) was head of state of Mauritania from 1980 to 1984 .

Mohammed Khouna Ould Haidalla's family belong to a Sherif tribe who fought the colonial power of France in Mauritania until independence. He joined the Mauritanian army in 1962 and attended the Saint-Cyr military school . In July 1978 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and chief of staff of the Mauritanian army, in April 1979 he became defense minister of the Comité Militaire de Salut National (CMSN), which had been in power the previous year.

president

He became Prime Minister on May 31, 1979 after his predecessor was killed in a plane crash. His government succeeded in ending Mauritania's costly and so far unsuccessful involvement in the Western Sahara conflict through an agreement with the POLISARIO . President Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly was deposed on January 4, 1980, and Mohammed Khouna Ould Haidalla became his successor and chairman of the CMSN. He gave up the post of Prime Minister at the end of 1980.

In terms of foreign policy, he strove for close cooperation between the states of the Maghreb and, at the end of 1983, prompted his country to join a cooperation agreement between Algeria and Tunisia , with Algeria being the most important adversary of Mauritania's previous partner, Morocco, in the Western Sahara conflict.

On March 8, 1984, he dismissed Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya from the posts of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense for his incapacity. The latter remained chief of staff. During a trip abroad, he was deposed from France on December 12, 1984, under the direct direction of French President François Mitterrand and his chief of staff, General Lacase, by their husband Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who also experienced the same thing during one of his trips on August 3, 2005 . It should be mentioned here that Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla returned to Mauritania immediately after the coup against him, although he had many other options. That is why he is the first and so far the last president in the world to return to his country despite the danger after the coup. Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya did not want to return to Mauritania after the coup against him, but preferred the golden asylum in Qatar.

Further career

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla spent a period of time in captivity. On November 7, 2003 he faced Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya unsuccessfully in presidential elections. In these elections, the correctness of which was questioned, he received 18.67% of the vote against 67.02% for Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. His protest was unsuccessful and he was arrested at the end of the year and sentenced to five years in prison. His case was taken up by the Spanish section of Amnesty International . He was released in early 2005. A party founded by his followers was refused admission in April 2005. In an interview in August 2005, he welcomed the recent fall of Taya.

The following important information is missing from this article or section:

Biography after 2005: esp. Further candidacy, prison sentence in Morocco

Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Web links

• L'ancien président Ould Haidalla dépose un recours en annulation de la présidentielle. on: Afrique Express. January 6, 2004 (on the 2003 elections) (French)
• Mauritanie: Un verdict mi-figue, mi-raisin. on: Radio France International. December 29, 2003 (on his conviction) (French)
• Mauritanie: Soulmanagement après le verdict. on: Radio France International. February 4, 2005 (on his amnesty) (French)