NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters)
Mauritanian soldiers overthrew the elected president in a coup on Wednesday and announced the formation of a military ruling council in the northwest African Islamic state.
Soldiers seized President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi at his palace after he sacked senior army officers during a political crisis in Mauritania, one of the continent's newest oil producers which also mines iron, copper and gold.
"The security agents of the BASEP (Presidential Security Battalion) came to our home around 9.20 (0920 GMT) and took away my father," Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi, the president's daughter, told Reuters.
The African Union and European Union condemned the coup in the largely desert country of 3 million, which straddles black and Arab Africa.
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Coup A "State Council" led by one of the sacked officers, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, said Abdallahi was now "former president" and annulled his previous decree sacking Abdelaziz and the heads of the army and Gendarmerie.
The communique, described as the council's "Statement No. 1", was broadcast by Gulf-based Arabic television stations.
Abdallahi was elected last year and took over from a military junta that had toppled the authoritarian President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in a bloodless coup in 2005.
State television and radio in Nouakchott ceased broadcasting when soldiers surrounded government offices.
"We are being kept in the house, forbidden to leave. There are guards posted in the kitchen, the bedrooms, even the showers. The phones have been cut. It is certainly a coup," Abdallahi's daughter said.
A presidency official who declined to be named said the prime minister and interior minister had also been arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
Soldiers had arrested new military chiefs appointed by Abdallahi earlier on Wednesday, Al-Arabiya reported.
Soldiers on jeeps with heavy guns stood guard outside government buildings. Youths in T-shirts or more traditional robes gathered nearby, some waving joyfully to TV cameras. But police fired tear gas at around 50 supporters of Abdallahi.
"We are against the military and we are deeply against this coup. We support Sidi to the death," said one, Kory Ould Naina.
The return to democratic rule last year had been widely welcomed by the international community. |
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Reaction "The African Union ... condemns the coup d'Etat and demands the restoration of constitutional legality," said a statement issued at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The European Union condemned the coup and demanded that Abdallahi be restored to power.
"The European Commission is very concerned by the situation in Mauritania, which puts into question the remarkable democratic progress in this country," it said in a statement.
EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said it could "put into question our policy of cooperation with Mauritania." The EU executive had allocated some 156 million euros of aid for 2008-2013. |
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Rumors Abdallahi dismissed his government in May after criticism over its response to soaring food prices and to a series of attacks over the last year by al Qaeda's north African arm.
A new government resigned last month in the face of a proposed no-confidence vote, and a replacement cabinet lacked the support of the opposition Union of Forces for Progress (UFP) and Islamist Tawassoul parties included in the previous team.
This week most of the members of parliament belonging to Abdallahi's PNDD-ADIL party quit the party en masse.
"There were rumors about two weeks ago that might be a coup in the offing. It was a bit of an open secret that two senior military commanders were fanning this split within the ruling party," said Ruairi Patterson, an analyst at Control Risks. |
