On July 10, 1978 the Mauritanian army chief of staff, Colonel Mustafa Ould Salek, led a bloodless coup that overthrew President Moktar Ould Daddah, the country's first leader since independence in 1960, ending his eighteen-year rule as the disastrous war in Western Sahara wrecked the economy. Ould Daddah had built an authoritarian one-party state, but after Spain's 1975 withdrawal from Western Sahara he committed Mauritania to annexing a southern portion of the territory, drawing the country into a costly guerrilla war against the Algerian-backed Polisario Front. Polisario raids on the iron mines at Zouerate and even on the capital Nouakchott ruined the economy and collapsed his support.
On July 10, 1978, Ould Salek and a group of junior officers seized power without bloodshed; no shooting was reported in Nouakchott and no casualties announced. Salek formed a military junta, the Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN), and Ould Daddah was imprisoned. He was later allowed to go into exile in France in 1979.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Moktar Ould Daddah, overthrown on July 10, 1978; he was imprisoned and later allowed into exile in France.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Moktar Ould Daddah (first president overthrown)
Mustafa Ould Salek (army chief of staff who led the coup)
The Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN, the new junta)
Sources
The 1978 Mauritanian coup was a bloodless military coup on 10 July 1978, led by Army Chief of Staff Colonel Mustafa Ould Salek commanding a group of junior officers, which overthrew President Moktar Ould Daddah, who had ruled since independence from France in 1960; the main motive was Daddah's ill-fated participation in the Western Sahara War and the resulting ruin of Mauritania's economy.
Following the coup, Salek assumed the presidency of a newly formed 20-member Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN), reports from Nouakchott said no shooting had been heard in the city and no casualties were announced, and after a period of imprisonment Ould Daddah was allowed to go into exile in France in August 1979.
Moktar Ould Daddah served as the first President of Mauritania for 18 years until he was deposed in a military coup in 1978, and on 10 July 1978 Lt. Col. Mustafa Ould Salek overthrew him and installed a junta, after which Moktar was allowed to go into exile in France in August 1979 after a period of imprisonment.
Mustafa Ould Salek seized power in a bloodless military coup on 10 July 1978, overthrowing longtime President Moktar Ould Daddah amid economic strain and military defeats in the Western Sahara conflict, and as head of the Military Committee for National Recovery he sought to negotiate an end to the costly war against the Polisario Front.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGrokipedia, Mustafa Ould Salekopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Fate coding: Ould Daddah was arrested and imprisoned after the coup and later, in 1979, allowed into exile in France, matching the dataset's arrested-or-jailed fate. Coding note: the dataset labels this a military coup, accurately; it was a bloodless takeover by the army chief of staff and junior officers, installing the CMRN junta. Driving cause: the coup is consistently attributed to the ruinous Western Sahara war against the Polisario Front, which drained the economy after Mauritania annexed part of the territory under the 1975 Madrid Accords; Salek's successors renounced Mauritania's claim and withdrew from the war in August 1979, recorded as later context. Sourcing nuance: sources give the junta's size as 17 or 20 members and its name variously as the Military Committee for National Recovery or National Salvation; both are recorded. Historical note: Ould Daddah, independence leader and a former OAU chairman, was allowed to return to Mauritania only in 2001.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Moktar Ould Daddah, overthrown on July 10, 1978; he was imprisoned and later allowed into exile in France..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; arrested or jailed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Military Takes Over in Mauritania With a Reportedly Bloodless Coup Stand on Polisario Unknown COUP IN MAURITANIA STAGED BY MILITARY French-Algerian Ties Strained,” by Jonathan Kandell, July 11, 1978
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →