UN welcomes release of Mauritania president

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon late on Sunday welcomed reports that Mauritanian President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi had been released from house arrest.

“He also welcomes the removal of other restrictions imposed on him since he was deposed in a coup d’état on August 6 2008,” a unnamed spokesperson for Ban said in a written statement.

Four military vehicles picked up Abdallahi in his home village of Lemden, 250km south of Nouakchott, and drove him to his private residence in the capital in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, a security source said.

“He now is free to move,” the source said.

However, in an apparent show of defiance to the generals who ousted him, Abdallahi promptly returned to Lemden.

“The secretary general reiterates his call for the prompt restoration of constitutional order in Mauritania in the interest of peace and respect for the rule of law in the country,” the spokesperson for Ban said.—Sapa-AFP