Mauritania: Deposed president forcibly removed to the capital

Published December 21st, 2008 - 07:44 GMT

Security forces early Sunday forcibly removed Mauritania's recently deposed president from the village where he had been under house arrest, his daughter said. According to the AP, a police official confirmed that police were given orders to take ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi into custody and drive him to his home in the African country's capital, Nouakchott, where he was to be freed.

 

A military junta deposed Abdallahi in a coup Aug. 6 and placed him under house arrest. B

 

For the first four months, the ruling junta kept Abdallahi under house arrest in a villa in the capital. They then transferred him to his native village of Lemden, located 150 miles from Nouakchott, where he was allowed to leave his house, but not the town. Three soldiers followed him at all times, said his daughter Amal Mint Abdallahi.

 

She said security forces banged on the door at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, waking the family. "They took him by force. They didn't allow him to take his things or for his family to come along," Amal Mint Abdallahi told The Associated Press.