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Nouakchott: Mauritania’s newly formed junta promised the establishment of "free and transparent" presidential elections "in shortest time possible", in a statement released on Thursday.
The "State Council" set up during Wednesday’s coup d’Etat led by presidential guard chief Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, confirmed in the statement, published on national news agency AMI, that it had "put an end" to the rule of Sidi Mohammad Ould Shaikh Abdallahi, Mauritania's first freely elected president.
Soldiers overthrew the elected president in a coup on Wednesday announced the formation of a military ruling council in the northwest African Islamic state.
Soldiers seized President Sidi Mohammad Ould Shaikh Abdullahi at his palace after he sacked senior army officers during a political crisis in Mauritania, one of the continent's newest oil producers which also mines iron, copper and gold.
"Security agents of the Basep [Presidential Security Battalion] came to our home around 9.20 (0920 GMT) and took away my father," Amal Bint Shaikh Abdullahi, the president's daughter, said. The African Union and European Union condemned the coup in the largely desert country of 3 million, which straddles black and Arab Africa.
A "State Council" led by one of the sacked officers, Mohammad Ould Abdul Aziz, said Abdullahi was now "former president" and annulled his previous decree sacking Abdul Aziz and the heads of the army and Gendarmerie. The communique, described as the council's "Statement No. 1," was broadcast by Arabic television stations.
Abdullahi was elected last year and took over from a military junta that had toppled the authoritarian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmad Taya in a bloodless coup in 2005. State television and radio in Nouakchott ceased broadcasting when soldiers surrounded government offices.
A presidency official who declined to be named said the prime minister and interior minister had also been arrested and taken to an unknown destination. Soldiers had arrested new military chiefs appointed by Abdullahi earlier yesterday, Al Arabiya reported.
The US joined the European Union and several other countries in condemning the coup, saying it had ousted a democratically elected government. "This was a democratically elected, constitutional government and we condemn the act," a State Department spokes-man said. Nigeria said it would not recognise the military rulers.
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