The Africa Union (AU), has suspended the membership of Mauritian from the continental body until the West African state is restored to democratically elected governance.

The AU has also demanded the release of detained President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi after the country’s generals ousted him in a military coup.

Mauritania has signed several AU conventions banning illegal changes of government, including the latest one about two weeks ago, Mr Bernard Membe, Tanzania Foreign Minister, stated in a statement made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

Tanzania currently holds the AU rotation Presidency.

The AU’s move is the latest international condemnation of a coup that in Mauritania has received a mixture of support and muted criticism from various political camps.

A group of 11 military officers set up the Higher State Council on August 6, to run the country after detaining ousted President Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ahmed el-Waghef.

The junta is led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the head of the presidential guard, who has pledged to hold elections in about two months.

Africa Civil Society Organisations have hailed the AU’s decision to suspend Mauritania’s membership from the continental body following last week’s military coup.

The move is considered as a powerful reminder that Africa is not prepared to return to the dark days when coups d’etats were the order of the day, Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Anning, a security expert, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra.

He explained that over the past 20 years, Africa’s democratic development had been two steps forward, one step back fashion, which was to be expected for a continent that was firmly in the grip of an assortment of dictators, both military and civilian, from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

“But just when Africa thought that military rulers were about to become an extinct species on the continent, the coup in Mauritania has reminded us that it will take a long time for true democracy to be firmly entrenched on the continent.

“However, this should not mean that the brazen disregard for the rule of law as has happened in Mauritania should be condoned, let alone tolerated,” Dr Anning stated.

He said the AU and the international community should work to make life even tougher for the generals in Nouakchott and force them to relinquish power and restore democracy sooner rather than latter.

“Africa cannot go back to the dark days of military adventurism in the democracy process,” Dr Anning said.


Source: GNA