Moktar Ould Daddah
Mustafa Ould Salek was appointed army commander by longtime President Moktar Ould Daddah in February 1978, as the country faced dire economic crisis and was failing to contain the Polisario Front's Sahrawi guerrillas after invading Western Sahara in 1975 in alliance with Morocco. On July 10, 1978, Ould Salek led a military coup d'état against President Daddah, and was appointed head of the 20-man junta, the Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) that was to rule the country. He died in a Paris hospital aged 76.