Mauritania Police Disperse Anti-Coup Rally

Mauritanian police on Thursday used teargas to disperse hundreds of civilians demonstrating against a military coup in the country’s capital, Nouakchott. Earlier on, an estimated 1,000 pro-coup supporters had also marched through the streets, chanting all the way to the presidential palace where they were addressed by coup leader General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. In his address, Abdelaziz declared that the military had staged last Wednesday’s coup to rid Mauritania of the “dictatorship” of ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. The African Union, Nigeria, the EU and the US have so far denounced the coup. [PE]