Military Committee for National Salvation

The Military Committee for National Salvation (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Comité Militaire de Salut National, CMSN) was a military government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania that took power in 1979. It was installed by Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla

Ret. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah was the head of state of Mauritania from 4 January 1980 to 12 December 1984...

, Ahmed Ould Bouceif

Ahmed Ould Bouceif

Lt. Col. Ahmed Ould Bouceif was a Mauritanian military and political leader. In April 1979, he seized power in a coup d'état together with Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah and other officers, ousting Col. Mustafa Ould Salek from power. He became prime minister in the new government...

and fellow officer

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

s, in an internal regime/military coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

on April 6, 1979, removing Col. Mustapha Ould Salek of the Military Committee for National Recovery

Military Committee for National Recovery

The Military Committee for National Recovery was a short-lived military government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania after the coup d'état that removed long-time President Mukthar Ould Daddah on July 10, 1978, until a second coup on April 6, 1979. It was headed by Col. Mustapha Ould Salek...

(CRMN) from effective power. He was replaced by Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly

Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly

Lt. Col. Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly was the President of Mauritania and Chairman of the Military Committee for National Salvation from 3 June 1979 to 4 January 1980.محمد-External links:...

in May 1979; Haidallah would later emerge as the main military strongman, and go on to assume full powers, only to be deposed by Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya , was Prime Minister of Mauritania from 1981 to 1984 and president from 1984 to 2005. He guided Mauritania from military rule to democracy, and took a pro-Western stance in foreign affairs...

. The CMSN remained as an institution until 1992, when Taya introduced a multi-party system

Multi-party system

A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...

- he himself lost power only in 2005.

The main achievement of the CMSN was to make peace with the Western Sahara

Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...

n Polisario Front

Polisario Front

The POLISARIO, Polisario Front, or Frente Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement working for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco...

, which had been fighting Mauritania since the government of President Moktar Ould Daddah

Moktar Ould Daddah

Moktar Ould Daddah was the President of Mauritania from 1960, when his country gained its independence from France, to 1978, when he was deposed in a military coup d'etat.- Background :...

invaded the country in 1975. The CMSN opted for complete withdrawal from the conflict, evacuating southern Rio de Oro

Río de Oro

Río de Oro , is, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century...

(which had been annexed as Tiris El Gharbiya) and recognizing the Polisario as the representative of the Sahrawi people; this led to a crisis in relations with Morocco, which had similarly annexed the northern two-thirds of the country, and was also facing Sahrawi resistance.

See also