King Mohammed VI has offered his heartfelt congratulations to Mauritania’s Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed following his election as Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
In his congratulatory message, the Sovereign wished success to the new OIC Chief in his mission, saying he is confident that Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed’s long diplomatic and UN experience will enable him to advance joint Islamic action and serve the supreme interests of the Islamic Ummah.
The King assured the new Secretary-General of Morocco’s constant backing of the Organization’s initiatives seeking to strengthen the unity and solidarity of the Islamic Ummah, promote its influence and foster its prosperity.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, 66, is a former a Mauritanian diplomat & foreign minister. He succeeds Chad’s Hussein Ibrahim Taha whose term as OIC chief 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. He 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.
