Mauritania’s Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed elected new OIC secretary-general

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a Mauritanian diplomat and former foreign minister, was elected secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday, Anadolu reports.

The election was held at an extraordinary meeting of OIC foreign ministers in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which also discussed the issue of Palestinian statehood and recent developments regarding Jerusalem.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed, 66, succeeds Chad’s Hussein Ibrahim Taha, who has served as OIC secretary-general since late 2021 and whose term will officially end in November.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed served as Mauritania’s foreign minister from 2018 to 2022, and as the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for Yemen from 2015 to 2018.

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He also previously served as deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general, and as resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for the UN Support Mission in Libya in 2014.

From 2012 to 2014, he served as UN humanitarian coordinator and UN Population Fund representative in Yemen, later holding the same positions in Syria from 2008 to 2012.

In addition to Arabic, Ould Cheikh Ahmed speaks both French and English.

The OIC is the world’s second-largest intergovernmental organization after the UN, boasting a total of 57 member states.

It focuses mainly on issues affecting the Muslim world, including the Palestinian national cause and Jerusalem.

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