mauritania: coup averted

This means that most of the coup leaders are now in prison or made ineffective. Mauritania is safer now than before.
I am surprised at the panic this seems to have caused. However, it did allow me to buy more HDR at $2.10 today.


Mauritania: Coup averted
29/09/2004 11:43 - (SA)

Nouakchott - The government in the arid north-western African state of Mauritania said it had averted a plan to mount a military coup by arresting several alleged plotters and seizing a large stock of weapons.

Speaking in the capital Nouakchott late on Tuesday, Interior Minister Mohamed Ghali Ould Cherif Ahmed said the security forces had seized weapons and arrested several people, including an army officer who had already been implicated in a failed coup in June last year.

Another attempt to overthrow the government was thwarted last August.

"Mauritania's security and intelligence services succeeded in thwarting a vast plan of destabilisation and sabotage" aimed at taking power through "the destruction of the presidency, the chiefs of staff, communications centres, the airport and power stations," the minister told journalists.

Confessions

He said those arrested included both civilians and soldiers, the latter including alleged ringleader Captain Abderahmane Ould Mini.

According to military sources contacted by AFP, at least four army officers, including Ould Mini, were arrested in raids on Saturday and Monday. Ould Mini, who had been sought under an international arrest warrant, was seized on Saturday, they said.

Three other officers captured on Monday were believed to be linked to a group called the "horsemen of change," set up in September last year by disgruntled officers who had taken part in the June plot, the sources said.

Ould Cherif Ahmed said that confessions made by Ould Mini had allowed the seizure in an outlying area of Nouakchott of a large stock of weapons, including Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket launchers and ammunition.

Ould Mini has been named by the authorities as the organiser of an attempt by army officers to seize power on June 8 2003. That incident led to 36 hours of fighting that left 15 people dead, according to an official toll.

Earlier, military sources who did not want to be identified said that at least four army officers suspected of plotting the coup in June last year had been arrested in recent days.

Vast desert country

The government of Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Taya has accused both Libya and the west African state of Burkina Faso of supporting both of the earlier coup attempts, and providing refuge to the people who plotted them.

In his statement on Tuesday, Ould Cherif Ahmed alleged that Moustapha Limam Chafi, a special advisor to President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, had "prepared and financed these criminal acts," with support from the Burkina Faso government and finance from Libya.

He alleged that Ould Hanena and Ould Mini had entered Mauritania via the neighbouring states of Senegal and Mali, using fake identity documents.

Mauritania is a vast mainly desert country on Africa's north-western coast, bordering the Moroccan-administered territory of Western Sahara, Algeria, Mali and Senegal. - AFP

Edited by Andrea Botha


http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1596793,00.html