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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Mauritania
Index
Economic hardship also weighed heavily on the Daddah regime.
During 1977, defense expenditures increased as international
demand for iron ore (Mauritania's major source of foreign
exchange) fell. Drought conditions that devastated crops and
herds further strained the economy. Mauritania survived only with
the help of grants and loans from Saudi Arabia, France, Morocco,
and Libya.
In January 1978, during a special congress of the PPM, Daddah
unsuccessfully tried to seek a path out of the Western Sahara
war; however, the increasingly isolated leader proved unable to
undertake any diplomatic or political initiatives. In addition,
relations between Daddah and senior army officers were strained
because the president constantly shifted senior officers from
posting to posting to guard against a possible coup.
In February 1978, in a desperate move, Daddah appointed
Colonel Mustapha Ould Salek to be army commander. In the late
1960s, Daddah had relegated Salek, who was suspected of proFrench leanings, to the reserve corps. (Salek had reentered
active duty only in 1977, when he was made commander of the Third
Military Region, at Atar, and relations between Daddah and Salek
were still strained.) On July 10, 1978, the newly appointed army
commander led a group of junior officers in the bloodless
overthrow of the eighteen-year-old Daddah government.
Data as of June 1988
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