Background
He was born in 1929, at Kaedi in a Soninke family, his father was an Imam of the local mosque.
He was born in 1929, at Kaedi in a Soninke family, his father was an Imam of the local mosque.
Educated at Kaedi, the Lycec Blanchot and at the William Ponty School in Dakar (1946-9), he returned home and started work as a school teacher, becoming headmaster in schools at Bouly, M’Bagne and Kaedi from 1952 until 1965.
In 1960, he became assistant mayor of Kaedi and in December 1961 was a founder member of the Mauritanian Peoples’ Party. He was appointed Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs in January 1965. A succession of ministries followed: Construction, Public Works, Transport and Posts and Telecommunications from February to October 1966; Minister of Equipment until January 1968; Finance until April 1970; Industrialisation and Mines until 1971 and Defence from August 1971. At the special congress of the Mauritanian Peoples’ Party in 1971, it was decided to take a fresh look at the defence agreements originally signed in 1971, with France. He decided that as Morocco had abandoned its claims to Mauritanian territory there was no reason to renew the agreement or allow France military overflying rights.
One of the African ministers in a predominantly Moorish cabinet, who ranks third on government lists. A younger technocrat, who has proved indispensable to Moktar Ould Daddah, from the time he was given his first portfolio, in 1964. Since then, he has shifted ministries six times, but has never been dropped from the cabinet. He was chosen to look after Mauritania’s 1,500 strong army when the decision was made not to renew the 1961 defence pact with France.