NOUAKCHOTT, Aug 3: Mauritania’s army said on Wednesday it had seized power to end the ‘totalitarian’ regime of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, who is out of the country, and planned to rule for up to two years. The 53-nation African Union said it condemned all seizure of power by force and Taya’s PRDS party urged all political forces to denounce the coup, but in the capital hundreds of people took to the streets, shouting and honking car horns in celebration.
The United States condemned the coup and called for President Taya to be restored to power. Acting State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the situation in Mauritania was ‘fairly unclear’.
“What we want to do is join the African Union in condemning the violence in Mauritania,” Mr Casey said. “And we call for a peaceful return to order under the constitution and the established government of President Taya.” Convoys of cars with people hanging out of them shouting ‘Praise Be to God’ and making victory signs paraded down one of Nouakchott’s main sand-blanketed avenues.
“The armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the totalitarian activities of the defunct regime under which our people have suffered so much over recent years,” said a statement signed by a ‘Military Council for Justice and Democracy’.
“This council pledges before the Mauritanian people to create favourable circumstances for an open and transparent democracy,” the statement, broadcast on state media, said. Mr Taya, who attended the funeral of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd in Riyadh on Tuesday, arrived in Niger’s capital Niamey hours after the first reports of troop movements in Nouakchott.
Witnesses said that green-bereted members of Mr Taya’s guard had taken over state television and radio. Gunfire rang out briefly near the presidency building and the airport was closed. —Reuters
