Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi سيدي محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله |
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7th President of Mauritania | |
In office 19 April 2007 – 6 August 2008 |
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Prime Minister |
Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar Zeine Ould Zeidane Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef |
Preceded by | Ely Ould Mohamed Vall (as Chairman of the Military Council for Justice and Democracy) |
Succeeded by | Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (as President of the High Council of State) |
Personal details | |
Born | 1938 (age 78–79) Aleg, Brakna, Mauritania (then a colony of France) |
Political party | Independent |
Spouse(s) | Khatou Mint El Boukhari |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi (Arabic: سيدي محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله; born 1938) is a Mauritanian politician who was President of Mauritania from 2007 to 2008. He served in the government during the 1970s, and after a long period of absence from politics he won the March 2007 presidential election, taking office on 19 April 2007. He was deposed in a military coup d'état on August 6, 2008.
Abdallahi was born in the town of Aleg in southern Mauritania whilst a French colony, about 250 kilometers from the capital Nouakchott. He received his primary education in Aleg and his secondary education in Rosso, Mauritania and then at the École normale supérieure William Ponty in Senegal. He subsequently studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry in Dakar, Senegal and received a diplôme d'études approfondies in economics in Grenoble, France.
In 1968 Abdallahi returned to Mauritania to become Director of the Plan. He worked on the Second Plan for Economic and Social Development. In 1971, he was appointed as Minister of Planning and Industrial Development in September 1971 by the first post-independence President, Moktar Ould Daddah. During the 1970s he served in a series of positions in the government, including that of Minister of State for the National Economy in 1975 and Minister of Planning and Mines in 1976. As Minister of Planning and Mines he was involved in the nationalization of the iron mines and the introduction of the ouguiya as the nation's currency.