FACTBOX: Mauritania's President Abdallahi held in coup

Wed Aug 6, 2008 6:52am EDT
 
[-] Text [+]

(Reuters) - Soldiers in Mauritania seized President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, his prime minister and the interior minister on Wednesday, a presidency official said.

Soldiers gathered at the presidential palace after Abdallahi replaced senior army officers earlier in the day during a political crisis.

Here are some key facts about Abdallahi:

* Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi asked Prime Minister Yahya Ahmed El Waghef to form a new cabinet earlier this month after the premier resigned with his government over a parliamentary revolt.

* This presented Abdallahi with his first major political crisis since he won 2007 elections marking the return of civilian rule to the West Saharan Islamic state.

-- Abdallahi had taken over from a military junta that had ruled since it toppled President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in a bloodless coup in 2005.

* Abdallahi, who belonged to the white Moorish elite which traditionally ruled the largely desert nation, was born in 1938 and studied in Dakar in Senegal and also Grenoble and Paris, qualifying in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

* In the 1970's he held several ministerial posts including Minister of State for National Economy. In the 1980's he was Minister of Hydraulic and Energy and then Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Economy.

 
A Taliban fighter poses with weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan October 30, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
Taliban may wait out Washington's "endgame"

Washington's hint of an Afghanistan endgame in saying U.S. troops won't still be there in 2017 might help win over a war-weary public, but there is no guarantee a notoriously patient Taliban won't just wait the Americans out.  Full Article | Full Coverage 

Featured Broker sponsored link

Editor's Choice

A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours.  Slideshow 

Most Popular on Reuters

  • Articles
  • Video
Bernd Debusmann
A paradox of plenty: Hunger in America

In the world’s wealthiest country, home to more obese people than anywhere else on earth, one in six Americans struggled to feed themselves and their children in 2008. Millions went hungry, at least some of the time. Things are bound to get worse.  Commentary