AU Threatens Sanctions against Mauritania

The African Union (AU) has threatened to impose sanctions against Mauritania if the country does not restore constitutional rule within the next few weeks. In a statement released Tuesday, the AU’s Peace and Security Council gave an October 6, 2008 deadline for the unconditional reinstatement of Mauritania’s former president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was deposed by his palace guard on August 6. Abdallahi and his former prime minister, Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, are both under a house arrest imposed by the new military junta. [PE]