Coup ousts Mauritania's first elected leader

Soldiers overthrew Mauritania's first democratically elected president in a coup on Aug. 6 and announced a military junta was taking charge of the northwest African Islamic state.

Army forces seized President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi at his palace after he sacked senior army officers during a political crisis in the Islamic republic, which straddles black and Arab Africa, and is one of the continent's newest oil producers.

The African Union, the European Union, the United States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the ouster, Africa's first successful coup since a previous president was ousted three years earlier.

Abdallahi was deposed by officers led by the chief of his own presidential guard, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, barely 15 months after he took office after winning elections.

The historic elections were organized after a 2005 coup -- also instigated by Abdel Aziz -- which toppled authoritarian ruler Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who had taken power in a coup 20 years earlier.

The Aug. 6 coup followed Abdallahi's sacking of senior military officers, including Abdel Aziz, who were widely seen as supporting the president's opponents. Abdel Aziz says he took over because Abdallahi had shown poor leadership.

The coup leaders are also holding former Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef, who was deposed along with Abdallahi, after El Waghef led a big protest march against the military coup.

The African Union has suspended Mauritania after the coup and pressed the coup leader to restore democracy in the Saharan state.

Nearly three weeks after the takeover, Jean Ping, the African Union's most senior permanent official, said he was optimistic solutions could be found to the political crisis caused by the coup, which has been opposed by some popular streets demonstrations, although a significant segment of Mauritania's political establishment has backed it.

"What we hope is that we can quickly find a way out of the crisis, that's what we're here for," Ping added, declining to give further details.

The coup was condemned by the United Nations and its leaders face threats by the United States and the European Union to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid and over $110 million a year from an EU fisheries deal if Abdallahi is not restored.

Coup leader Abdel Aziz has promised free elections "as soon as possible" but has so far not announced a timetable. He has also said he may stand for president himself, a possibility strongly opposed by Western countries and internal critics of the coup.