an unctuous individual babbling

Hello fragile readers,

There has been a coup. As in d'état.

Okay, so this was like four days ago, so obviously I'm still entirely and wholly alive.

Much like the coup three years ago (freakishly to the, almost, day), it is utterly Mauritanian in style and this means that it is, among other less good things, non-violent. So I'm completely fine, and everyone I know is completely fine, and it's about as boring as a drive through Nebraska.

Having said that, I just thought I would give you a bit of news, just so that we, you know, can feel dramatic and international all together. Let's go....


the guardian says this:

Mauritania's president deposed in coup

President of impoverished west African nation detained in revolt led by former chief of official guard

• Peter Walker and agencies
• guardian.co.uk,
• Wednesday August 06 2008 16:30 BST
• Article history

The president of Mauritania was today deposed in a coup led by the former chief of his official guard, who appointed himself the head of a junta ruling the west African nation.

Troops seized Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who became Mauritania's first democratically elected leader last year, after he announced the dismissal of four generals, one of them the coup leader, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

A brief announcement, read out on state television several hours after the president was detained, said Abdel Aziz would head a new "state council" to govern the former French colony, that recently became Africa's newest oil-producing nation.

A copy of the announcement on the state-run L'Agence Mauritienne d'Information website also said that this morning's decree by the "former president" sacking Abdel Aziz and the other generals had been annulled.

Mauritania has suffered several coups since gaining independence at the end of 1960.

The last one, in 2005 – also led by Abdel Aziz - toppled the long-serving president, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who himself taken power in a coup in 1984. Abdallahi took power after the military regime allowed elections.

Today's coup was swiftly condemned by both the African Union and EU, the latter group saying that it put a question mark over more than £120m of planned European aid for the country.

The US state department also expressed its concern. "This was a democratically elected, constitutional government and we condemn the act," Gonzalo Gallegos, a spokesman, told reporters.

Today the new junta did not specify why they had ousted the president. According to some reports Abdallahi had angered elements in the military by opening talks with Islamist hardliners accused of having links with al-Qaida-affiliated groups.

Last year, separate attacks blamed on Islamist militants targeted the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott and killed four French tourists.

Today's coup appeared largely bloodless. Soldiers were sent out onto the streets of the capital and staff were ordered out of the state TV and radio stations but there were no reports of fighting.

The president's daughter, Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi, told French radio that troops arrived at the presidential palace shortly before 9.30am local time (1030 BST).

"The president has just been arrested by a commando, who came to fetch him, arrested him here and took him away," she told RFI radio. "This is a real coup d'etat."

Mauritania has been in the throes of a political crisis in recent weeks. On Monday, almost 50 MPs quit the ruling party following a vote of no confidence in the government.

The immediate catalyst for the coup appears to have been Abdallahi's decree today sacking Abdel Aziz and the three other generals. It was not clear, however, if the dismissals were themselves prompted by reports that the men were plotting to remove the president.

Mauritania became Africa's newest oil-producing country after offshore fields began operating in 2006.

The largely desert nation borders Algeria to the north and Mali and Senegal to the south and east.

Despite hopes of prosperity from the country's still mainly unexploited reserves of oil and gas, it remains desperately poor and imports more than 70% of its food.

It also faces pressure from international human rights groups to eliminate slavery, which they say remains widespread despite being outlawed in 1981.

It was only last year that Mauritania's parliament voted through a law penalising slavery with jail terms of up to 10 years. Some groups estimate that up to 20% of the country's 3 million-strong population are slaves.

There is of course much more recent news in addition to this, but you'll have to find that out for yourselves.

Love,

-C