Col. Mustafa Ould Salek (; ‎ 1936 – 18 December 2012) was the President of Mauritania from 1978 through 1979. Mustafa Ould Salek was appointed army commander by longtime President Mokhtar Ould Daddah in February 1978,[1] 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.[2] 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 [3].