The transitional government that will lead Mauritania into presidential elections next month was appointed on Friday after disputes that threatened to unravel an internationally brokered pact were overcome.
Ousted president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi signed the decree appointing the transitional government and then officially resigned his office in front of the Constitutional Council and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who has led international mediation efforts.
The move signaled that disputes that held up implementation of an agreement reached earlier in the month to resolve the political crisis in the west African country had been overcome.
The installation of a transitional government was foreseen under an agreement signed on June 4 by all Mauritanian parties just days before a controversial presidential election was to go forward. The agreement delayed the election until July 18,.
General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled Mauritania’s first democratically elected president last August, was set to sweep the election as the opposition had boycotted the vote.
Under the agreement, a transitional government equally balanced between pro-junta and anti-coup forces was to be formed to organize the election.
But Ould Cheikh Abdallahi refused to appoint the transitional government and step down until the junta council was dissolved.
International mediators said on Friday an agreement had been reached under which the junta would become a national defense council under the transitional government’s authority.
After signing the decree to loud applause, Ould Cheikh Abdallahi said he was stepping down “to protect the country from the simultaneous dangers from the economic embargo, political stress and social explosion.”
The African Union imposed sanctions on the junta and the EU froze cooperation with Mauritania earlier this year.
Ould Cheikh Abdallahi called on Mauritanians “to unite to give hope” to holding transparent elections.
The elections are still to go ahead on July 18 despite the delay in appointing the transitional government, international mediators said on Friday.
Although the political crisis was overcome, there were new fears in Mauritania on Friday after al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for this week’s murder of a US teacher in Nouakchott.
Christopher Logest was shot several times at close range after he resisted an apparent kidnap attempt on Tuesday at a private language and computer school he ran, a witness said.
The al-Qaeda statement called him guilty of “the crime of missionary in the land of Muslims,” according to US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to