Mauritania president Abdallahi arrested in coup
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
- 18 June 2011: UN passes LGBT rights resolution
- 30 April 2010: Algerian driver released by hostage takers in Niger
- 13 March 2010: Kidnapped Spanish aid worker is released
- 7 March 2010: Polio vaccination campaign targets 85 million African children
- 6 March 2009: Mauritania cuts ties with Israel, expels Israeli diplomats
Mauritania's President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf were arrested Wednesday in a military coup in Nouakchott, the country's capital. The coup has shut down state radio and television.
Image: Marcello Casal Jr./Abr.
"The security agents of the BASEP [Presidential Security Battalion] came to our home around 9:20 and took away my father," Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi said, confirming that presidential guardsmen seized her father.
Soldiers gathered at the presidential palace after Abdallahi replaced senior army officers during a political crisis in the northwest African country, one of the continent's newest oil producers which also mines iron, copper and gold.
A state council is forming under the command of former presidential guard chief Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. The council's "Statement No. 1", which was broadcast by Gulf-based al-Arabiya television, announced that Abdallahi is now a "former president" and that his previous decision of sacking Abdelaziz as the head of the presidential guard had been voided.
The country, which has a long history of military coups, staged free elections in June 2007, two years after a previous coup.
[edit] Sources
- "Coup in Mauritania as president, PM arrested" — AFP, August 6, 2008
- "Mauritania coup leaders seize President, PM" — ABC, August 6, 2008
- "Troops stage coup in Mauritania" — BBC, August 6, 2008
- Vincent Fertey and Ibrahima Sylla. "Mauritania forces stage coup after officers sacked" — Reuters, August 6, 2008
