Army announces new junta

2008-08-06 18:22

Ahmed Mohamed

Nouakchott - Army officers staged a coup on Wednesday in the sprawling desert nation of Mauritania, overthrowing the government and announcing a new junta that will be led by the head of the country's presidential guard.

The coup took place after the president and prime minister fired the country's top four military officials.

A brief announcement read over state television said the new "state council" will be led by presidential guard chief General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. It gave no other details.

President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was being held by renegade soldiers at the presidential palace in Nouakchott, according to presidential spokesperson Abdoulaye Mamadouba. Soldiers also detained Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef, he said.

State radio and television went off air and witnesses said soldiers were deployed throughout the capital. No violence was immediately reported.

Straddling the western edge of the Sahara desert, Arab-dominated Mauritania, with a population of 3.4 million, has been wracked by more than 10 coups or attempted coups since independence from France in 1960.

While most of its people live on about $5 a day, Mauritania became Africa's newest oil producer after reserves were discovered in 2006.

Abdallahi's civilian government took control from a military junta, which seized power in a 2005 coup and stepped down after 2007 elections.

No official reason was given for the military sackings, which were announced early on Wednesday. Among those fired was army chief staff General Mohamed Ould Sheikh Mohamed.

But the president had been under fire for weeks by lawmakers who have accused him of corruption and poor governance. At least 69 of the country's 95 parliament members had recently called for Abdallahi's resignation.

Lawmaker Mohammed Al Mukhtar told television station al-Jazeera by telephone that many people were supporting the takeover attempt. He described the government as "an authoritarian regime" and asserted the president had "marginalised the majority in parliament".

Spokesperson Romain Nadal said France's Foreign Ministry was in contact with French embassy officials in Nouakchott and that measures have been taken to protect the safety of French citizens living there.

The 2005 coup, which saw Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall seize power bloodlessly and declare himself president, was widely popular, for many Mauritanians had grown tired of the 21-year rule of former dictator Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya.

Although no junta members ran in the 2007 election, rumours have circled that some in the military were unhappy at being barred from the race. Newspapers also carried stories linking several of the 19 presidential candidates to Taya, now living in exile.

Al-Qaeda linked terror groups have also been active in the country, launching sporadic attacks on the military and other targets. Mauritania blamed the 2007 Christmas Eve slaying of four French tourists on a terror group allied with al-Qaeda.

The attacks prompted French organisers to cancelled the 2008 Dakar Rally, a famous transcontinental car and motorcycle race that brought pride and foreign currency into the country.

- AP