« Sic 'em girl. . . | Main | Mauritania Update. . . »
August 4, 2005
Military coup in Mauritania. . .
Mauritania, a Saharan West Africa Islamic state, has apparently experienced a military coup while the President was out of the country. The US State Department issued the following statement:
The United States joins the African Union in condemning the attempted overthrow of the government of Mauritania. We oppose any attempts by rogue elements to change governments through extra-constitutional or violent means. We call on all members of the military and security forces to avoid violence and the loss of innocent life.
The group that staged the coup bills itself as the Military Council for Justice and Democracy and has announced that it will hold power for two years, while democractic reforms are implemented.
Mauritania has been fighting off coup attempts for some time now. The African nation established relations with Israel in 1999 and has incurred the wrath of the Islamic world for doing so. Islamic radicalism has been on the rise in region for some time now and is seen as a relatively new phenomenon in the region. It should be noted that Mauritania is home to a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader, Abu Hafs al-Mauritani (Mahfouz Ould al-Walid), who is billed as a spiriual advisor to al-Queda and has been implicated in the African embassy attacks and 9/11! It is believed that al-Mauritani is currently in Iran. Should this guy pop his head back up in Mauritania after this coup, I'm all for going in and cutting it off.
The French haven't been very vocal, YEP this is ANOTHER former French colony in turmoil in Africa, even though there are some strong diplomatic and cultural ties there. I'm sure the U.N. will pick this up (not that they'll solve anything) and we'll learn more about Ould Taya and this military "council" over the next few days.
Israel has not pulled out it's diplomats yet, but I'm sure they are watching the situation VERY carefully. (I'm sure some loon will begin shouting "It's the JOOOS!" any minute now.)
My logs indicate that I've got some regular visitors from Mauritania. Nothing beats a first hand perspective, so if you're out there and you read this, please drop me a line at Jason[at]JasonColeman.com if you have any info you'd like to share.
Until I can learn more about this, here's some info from The Jamestown Foundation.
UPDATE: Oh this makes my head hurt, apparently the deposed president is a Ba'athist and the leader of the coup is Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall (a former secret police chief). This whole thing will be quite the mess.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at August 4, 2005 8:33 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.jasoncoleman.com/MT/mt-tb.cgi/144
