Col. Mustafa Ould Salek (Arabic: المصطفى ولد محمد السالك; 1936 – 18 December 2012) was the president of Mauritania from 1978 to 1979.

[1] Mustafa Ould Mohamed Salek was appointed Army Commander by longtime President Moktar Ould Daddah in February 1978,[2] as the country faced dire economic crisis and was failing to contain the Polisario Front's Sahrawi guerrillas after invading and annexing Western Sahara in 1975 in alliance with Morocco.

He also failed to address racial tension between southern Mauritanian Blacks and the northern Arab Moors, discriminating heavily in favour of the latter group, of which he was himself a member.

On April 6, 1979, a second coup by Colonels Ahmed Ould Bouceif and Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla reduced Mustafa to a symbolic and figurehead President in the replacement junta, the 24-man Military Committee for National Salvation (CMSN).

[5] Between 1981 and 1984 he was imprisoned, and he later stood as an independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, gaining 2.9% of the popular vote.