Mauritania’s Ousted PM Defiantly Addresses Rally

Mauritania's ousted Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef has refused to recognize the country’s new ruling military junta, defiantly addressing an anti-coup rally just a few hours after being released from detention. Several thousand people attended the rally in the capital, Nouakchott, where Waqef told them that President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who is still in detention, was in good health. Waqef urged the Mauritanian people to reject military rule, saying President Abdallahi wanted them to keep agitating for the reinstatement of their democratically elected government. Waqed was released Monday after being detained, alongside Abdallahi, when the military took power in a bloodless coup on Wednesday last week. [PE]