Mauritania’s coup leaders have announced they will appoint a government to run the country until new elections.
Leaders of a military coup in Mauritania said they would hold ”free and transparent” presidential elections ”in the shortest time possible”.
Presidential guardsmen seized Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in a coup on Wednesday after he sacked several army officers.
Mauritanian security forces recaptured five suspected al-Qaeda militants on Wednesday, including a fugitive accused of killing four French tourists, officials said. The December 24 killing of the French tourists and a shooting attack against the Israeli embassy in Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, in February raised fears of a rise in Islamic violence.