On April 6, 1979 a bloodless internal military coup in Mauritania stripped President Mustafa Ould Salek of effective power, replacing his ruling junta with a new one led by Colonels Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, driven by the same ruinous Western Sahara war that had brought down the civilian government the year before. Ould Salek had himself seized power in July 1978 by overthrowing the country's first president, Moktar Ould Daddah, but he had failed to extricate Mauritania from the costly war against the Polisario Front, deepened ethnic tensions between Arab-Berbers and black Mauritanians, and lost the confidence of France. On April 6, 1979 fellow officers dismissed his Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) and formed a new Military Committee for National Salvation (CMSN).
Ould Salek was reduced to a figurehead president; he formally resigned on June 3, 1979 and was succeeded by Colonel Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly. Ould Salek was not physically harmed.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Mustafa Ould Salek, stripped of effective power on April 6, 1979 and reduced to a figurehead before resigning in June; he was not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Mustafa Ould Salek (president reduced to figurehead)
Ahmed Ould Bouceif (colonel who led the coup)
Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla (colonel and future strongman)
Sources
The 1979 Mauritanian coup was a military coup on 6 April 1979, led by Colonel Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, who seized power from President Colonel Mustafa Ould Salek and the 20-member ruling Military Committee for National Recovery, resulting in the dismissal of the CMRN and the creation of the 24-member Military Committee for National Salvation, initially under Salek as a figurehead until his resignation on 3 June.
Isolated and weak after the French government lost confidence in his ability to extricate Mauritania from the Western Sahara war and Moroccan influence, Salek's government was overthrown on April 6, 1979 by Colonel Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Colonel Mohamed Khouna Haidalla, who formed the CMSN, though Salek was permitted to remain in the government as a figurehead president.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, History of Mauritania (1978-84)open source ↗
On 6 April 1979 a second coup by Colonels Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla reduced Mustafa to a symbolic and figurehead President in the replacement junta, the 24-man Military Committee for National Salvation, and on 3 June 1979 he was replaced as president by Colonel Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Mustafa Ould Salekopen source ↗
The CMSN's defining shift was extricating Mauritania from the costly Western Sahara War, and in August 1979 the committee signed a peace accord with the Polisario Front, withdrawing all troops and relinquishing claims to the region.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGrokipedia, Military Committee for National Salvationopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Arc link: this April 1979 coup is an internal reshuffle within Mauritania's military regime, connecting directly to the July 10, 1978 coup by which Ould Salek had deposed Moktar Ould Daddah (enriched in batch 29); the same Western Sahara war that toppled the civilian government now brought down Ould Salek. Fate coding: Ould Salek was reduced to a figurehead and not physically harmed, formally resigning in June 1979, matching the dataset. Coding note: the dataset labels this a palace coup, accurately, as it was an internal takeover within the ruling junta (CMRN dismissed, CMSN formed) that stripped the sitting president of real power while leaving him nominally in office. Sourcing nuance: sources give the new junta's size as 17 or 24 members; both are recorded. Aftermath: the CMSN made peace with the Polisario (the August 1979 Algiers Agreement), ending Mauritania's role in the war; Bouceif died in a May 1979 plane crash and Haidalla emerged as strongman, later events.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Mustafa Ould Salek, stripped of effective power on April 6, 1979 and reduced to a figurehead before resigning in June; he was not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. 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
“Mauritanian President Resigns 11 Months After Coup,” June 4, 1979
The Guardian
“Mauritania shuffle,” April 7, 1979
Detroit Free Press
“World Hot Spot – Mauritania,” April 7, 1979
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 →