Mauritania: Mauritania's armed forces have set up a military council to rule the country and end the "totalitarian" regime of president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, according to a statement broadcast on state media yesterday.
The communique said the council would rule the Islamic Republic for a maximum of two years. Taya is out of the country.
"The armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the totalitarian activities of the defunct regime under which our people have suffered so much over recent years," the statement said. Witnesses said earlier that members of Mr Taya's guard had taken over state television and radio. Gunfire rang out near the presidency building and the airport was closed.
An opposition leader and a military source said they believed the head of the presidential guard, Col Mohamed Ould Abdel-Aziz, was involved in the apparent coup d'etat.
Mr Taya, who attended the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd in Riyadh on Tuesday, arrived in Niger's capital Niamey hours after news of the troop movements emerged.
Mr Taya seized power in a 1984 coup. He has angered many Arabs in the country by shifting support from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to Israel and Washington in the 1990s. Dissident soldiers nearly toppled in 2003 during two days of fighting in Nouakchott before loyalist forces prevailed. - (Reuters)