Coup ousts Mauritania's first democratic president

Junta takes reins after Abdallahi fires army officers

Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz (left) said Abdallahi was now a "former president" and annulled his decree sacking Abdelaziz.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - Soldiers overthrew Mauritania's first democratically elected president in a coup yesterday and announced a military junta was taking charge of 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 the country, which is one of the continent's newest oil producers.

The African Union, European Union, United States, and Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the coup. But in the largely desert country of 3 million, opinion was divided.

A "State Council" led by one of the sacked officers, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, said Abdallahi was now a "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.

Last year, Abdallahi won Mauritania's first free, fair elections since independence in 1960, taking over from a military government that ousted President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in a bloodless 2005 coup.

Abdelaziz was also instrumental in Taya's overthrow, the last successful coup in Africa, and was No. 2 in the junta.

The president's daughter, Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi, said the presidential guard came to the residence and took away her father at around 9.20 a.m.

"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," she said.

A presidency official who declined to be named said the prime minister and interior minister had also been arrested.

The country's main airport was closed, and 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 international community, which had widely welcomed last year's democratic elections, broadly condemned Wednesday's coup.

"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.

EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel demanded Abdallahi be freed and restored to power, saying the coup could "put into question our policy of cooperation with Mauritania."

Regional power Nigeria said it would "not recognize any government that did not came to power through constitutional means."

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 parties.

This week most of the members of parliament belonging to Abdallahi's party quit the party en masse.

"It's a pity it took a military coup, but I completely support the change it has brought," one of the group, Mohamed Ali Ould Cherif, told Reuters on Wednesday.