Introduction

Sidi Abdellahi took office in April 2007 after winning the country’s first fully-democratic multi-party elections. He stood as an independent candidate to replace the outgoing military junta. Abdellahi had previously served as minister of the economy from 1971–78. He was forced from office by a military coup in Aug. 2008.

Early Life

Abdellahi was born into an Arab marabout family in 1938 in Aleg, a town 250 km southeast of the capital, Nouakchott. After local schooling he completed his secondary education in Dakar, Senegal. He went on to study economics in Grenoble, France before returning to Mauritania in 1968.

Having worked as an economic strategy adviser to the government, Abdellahi joined Moktar Ould Daddah’s administration in Sept. 1971. He held several posts including minister of state and minister of the economy, playing a key role in the nationalization of iron mining and creating a national currency. In 1974–75 he participated in negotiations for the Lomé Convention, a framework for co-operation between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the EU.

Abdellahi was imprisoned in July 1978 following the overthrow of Ould Daddah. On his release in 1979, Abdellahi went to Kuwait to work as an adviser to the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development from 1982–85. He returned to Mauritania in 1986 to serve in Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya’s authoritarian government, first as minister of hydro-power and electricity and then as minister of fisheries. In 1987 Taya arrested him on allegations of corruption, prompting Abdellahi again to leave the country in 1989. This time he moved to Niger to advise the government on behalf of the Kuwait Fund until his return to Mauritania in 2003.

After a bloodless military coup ousted Taya in 2005, Abdellahi announced his intention to run for the presidency as an independent candidate. He defeated Ahmed Ould Daddah in a second round run-off on 25 March 2007 and took office on 19 April.

Career Peak

In April 2007 Mauritania regained a seat on the African Union and received an US$18 m. loan from the Islamic Development Bank. Abdellahi pledged to confront the country’s ethnic inequalities, exacerbated by the unequal distribution of wealth from the discovery of oil off the Mauritanian coast in 2001.

In early 2008 rising food prices dented Abdallahi’s popularity. He dismissed his cabinet and formed a new government that lacked broad support. In July 2008 the cabinet lost a parliamentary vote of no confidence, which was shortly followed by the resignation of 48 MPs from the ruling party. On 6 Aug. 2008 Abdallahi dismissed several prominent military figures. On the same day he was removed from his home by members of the Presidential Security wing and taken into army custody. The prime minister and interior ministry were also arrested. On 7 Aug. a High Council of State assumed executive power, with Gen. Abdel Aziz as its president. The new regime is expected to try Abdallahi on corruption charges. The coup received international condemnation.