NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — The junta that took over Mauritania promised to swiftly hold "free and transparent" presidential elections in a statement read on national radio Thursday, as the international community condemned the military coup.
The 11-member Military Council led by former head of the presidential guard General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz had on Wednesday "ended the power of the president of the republic, invested on April 19 2007," the statement said.
The overthrown head of state, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, in March 2007 became Mauritania's first democratically elected president since independence in 1960.
The junta would together with other institutions "supervise the holding of presidential elections enabling the relaunch of the democratic process in the country and to reshape it on a perennial basis," the statement said.
It promised: "These elections, which will be held in the shortest possible period, will be free and transparent and will bring for the future a continued and harmonious functioning of all the constitutional powers."
The international airport of Nouakchott, closed down Wednesday after the bloodless coup, was reopened in the evening, a security source said. The country's land borders had remained open.
Abdallahi was ousted after he tried to sack senior army officers accused of being behind a political crisis destabilising the country. He was arrested after military convoys rolled through the capital Nouakchott and took over the presidential palace and the prime minister's office, apparently without a shot being fired.
Soldiers also took over the national radio and television headquarters, replacing the directors.
A statement read on public radio later said General Abdel Aziz, the head of the presidential guard sacked that morning, was leading the coup.
The newly constituted Military Council said it was immediately annulling the army appointments made by the president.
The council's statement Thursday said it would to respect all Mauritania's "treaties and international commitments".
The president's whereabouts were unknown after the coup, while Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf was taken to an army barracks near the presidency, security sources said.
The former interior minister and two other officials considered to be close allies of Abdallahi were also arrested, security sources said.
According to the Mauritanian news agency Agence Nouakchott d'Information (ANI), Abdel Aziz met the rest of the government ministers Wednesday afternoon and asked them to stay on in their posts.
The coup triggered international condemnation, with the United States urging the release of Mauritania's leaders and the EU threatening to cut off aid to the troubled country.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned the coup and called on the military to release the president and prime minister "and to restore the legitimate, constitutional, democratically elected government immediately."
At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he "deeply regrets the overthrow of the government of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi," and called for "the restoration of constitutional order," his spokeswoman said.
The African Union called for maintaining "constitutional legality" and said its peace and security commissioner, Ramtane Lamamra, would go to Mauritania to "assess the situation on the ground and assist in promoting a peaceful solution to the crisis."
Condemnation also came from regional powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria.
Police fired tear gas grenades to disperse a crowd of about 50 people gathered near one of the main markets during the afternoon, local journalists reported, but the capital of the nation of 3.1 million people was otherwise calm.
The coup comes a little over a year since Abdallahi came to power in elections hailed as a model of democracy for Africa, following a three-year transition after a bloodless coup in August 2005.
Mauritania has been facing a political crisis and on Monday 48 members of parliament walked out on the ruling party less than two weeks after a vote of no confidence in the government prompted a cabinet reshuffle.
The largely desert country has a history of coups since gaining independence from France in 1960.
On top of growing economic and social unrest in the country which has been hard hit by the global food crisis as it imports more than 70 percent of its food needs, Mauritania was shaken by terrorist attacks recently.
Between December 2007 and February 2008 extremists linked to Al-Qaeda carried out three attacks which left seven people dead, including four French tourists.
