The leaders of Mauritania’s coup bowed to international pressure on Monday and released the prime minister and three other high-ranking officials held since the government was toppled last week.
But in a sign that power remained with the military, the junta was still holding the country’s president and said it had no immediate plans to release him.
A junta statement said the army-led ”state council” released Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef, Interior Minister Mohamed Ould R’zeizim, head of the economic council Ahmed Ould Sidi Baba and Moussa Fall, in charge of refugee repatriation.
All four are key allies of President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
They were all arrested five days ago when the army launched a coup d’etat.
The release followed lobbying by the ambassadors of the United States, France, Germany and Spain, who met with the coup leader late on Sunday to demand their release, said a diplomat who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The ambassadors met with coup leader General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at his office in the presidential palace, the same office that the country’s ousted president occupied until last week.
Aziz launched the coup on Wednesday last week one hour after Abdallahi fired the country’s top four generals, including Aziz.
The sackings came after an increasingly bitter stand-off between the army and Abdallahi, who in 2007 won Mauritania’s first free and fair ballot in more than 20 years.
Those elections followed a 2005 coup, which Aziz also helped to orchestrate, that ousted the country’s dictatorial regime.
Then, the junta announced that they would hold elections and, as a gesture of transparency, the 11 leaders of the coup barred themselves from running in the race.
In an interview on Sunday with the Associated Press, Aziz refused to rule out running this time in elections the junta promises to organise.
During his 16 months in office, Abdallahi often clashed with the army leaders. He opened a dialogue with Islamic militants and released several alleged Muslim extremists against the advice of the generals. — Sapa-AP