Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi

Cheikh Abdallahi Ould Sidi Mohamed (Arabic سيدي محمد ولد الشيخ عبد الله, DMG Sīdī walad Muḥammad ʿ Abd Allāh aš - Sayḩ; * 1938 in Aleg ) is a Mauritanian politician. He was elected in March 2007 as President and was on 19 April 2007 until he was deposed in a coup on August 6, 2008 President of Mauritania.

Life

Abdallahi, who comes from an influential family Islamic scholar, studied in Dakar ( Senegal), mathematics, physics and chemistry and reached a Diplôme d'études in Grenoble approfondies (DEA ) in the economy. He then returned in 1968 to Mauritania back. Under Moktar Ould Daddah he was minister 1971-1978. In his role as Minister of Economics, he was responsible for the introduction of the Mauritanian currency - the Ouguiya - and the nationalization of the iron mines. After the disempowerment Daddahs Abdallahi came to 1979 in jail. 1982-1986 he worked in Kuwait as an advisor to the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

After his re- return to Mauritania Abdallahi was under President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya 1986-1987 only energy, then fishing and finally Minister of Finance, was due to vorgeworfener corruption, which he allegedly committed as Minister of Fisheries, imprison him Taya.

1989-2003 Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi lived in Niger, where he worked again for the Kuwait Fund. 2006 - after Taya was overthrown by the Military Council for Justice and Democracy 2005 - he announced his presidential candidacy. He ran as independent, although some considered him " puppet " of the military council. In the first round of presidential elections on March 11, 2007, it had 25% of the votes ahead of the runner-up Ahmed Ould Daddah. Third-placed zeins Ould Zeidane announced on March 17 announced its support for Abdallahi and, after Abdallahi had won the second round of voting on March 25, with 52.85 % of the vote and 10 of the 13 regions for itself, its prime minister. This Abdallahi became the first freely elected president in his country's history.

Presidency and deposition

As President Abdallahi announced because of a budget deficit of 112 million U.S. dollars due to technical problems in oil production, together with his Cabinet to waive 25 % of his salary. Under his government, the parliament passed a law that made the 1980/81 prohibited slavery in Mauritania criminalized. Furthermore, the return of African- Mauritanian refugees who had fled in 1989 from attacks of the army began to Senegal. At the same time, the government was confronted in the context of rising global food prices, hunger protests.

Abdallahi was partly criticized because he allowed the creation of an Islamist party in 2007. But above all, he was accused that he recorded several former ministers Tayas in his government in May 2008; this could have been according to critics lead to a return of dictatorship Tayas.

On 6 August 2008, he was ousted in a military coup, after which he was the commander of the Presidential Guard intend to sell. He is since then under house arrest