Morocco-trained Moctar Ould Diay Appointed as Mauritania’s New Prime Minister

Marrakech – President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani of Mauritania has appointed Moctar Ould Diay as the country’s new Prime Minister, following his inauguration for a second term after winning the June presidential election.

The appointment was announced in a presidential decree on Friday evening, just a day after President Ghazouani’s swearing-in ceremony.

Ould Diay, an engineer by training, graduated from the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA) in Rabat, Morocco.

Prior to his appointment, he served as the President’s Chief of Staff and has held several key positions in the Mauritanian government, including Minister of Finance under the administration of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

Ould Diay also served as the Director General of Taxes in 2010 and the Managing Director of the National Industrial and Mining Company (SNIM) in 2019.

President Ghazouani secured a second term in office after winning the first round of the presidential election on June 30 with 56.12% of the vote, ahead of opposition leader Biram Dah Abeid (22.10%) and Islamist candidate Hamadi Ould Sidi El Mokhtar (12.78%).

During his inauguration speech, the president pledged to wage “a merciless fight against mismanagement and corruption” as he leads the desert nation, situated at the crossroads of North and sub-Saharan Africa, for another five years.

Mauritania, with a population of 4.9 million, has remained a relatively stable country in the Sahel region, which has been plagued by jihadist violence and military coups.

The country has not experienced a terrorist attack on its soil since 2011, in contrast to its neighbor, Mali, and other Sahelian nations.

Following its independence from France in 1960, Mauritania underwent a series of coups and authoritarian regimes, with the 2019 election marking the first transition between two democratically elected presidents.

Moroccan Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch attended President Ghazouani’s inauguration ceremony in Nouakchott as a representative of King Mohammed VI.

Akhannouch met with the Mauritanian president to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.

During the meeting, President Ghazouani reaffirmed his commitment to deepening the fraternal ties between Mauritania and Morocco, expressing a strong desire to develop bilateral relations to better serve the interests of both nations and their peoples.