The international community might not be thrilled with the recent coup in Mauritania, but the country’s parliament has given the new military junta its overwhelming support and has asked the rest of the world to recognize the country’s new direction. The fact that the military resorted to a coup is still disquieting, but perhaps this latest phase will lead to true democratic reform for the long run.
The potentially bad news is that there has been a coup in Mauritania. In the country’s capital, Nouakchott, General Mohammad al-Abdul Aziz, the head of the presidential guard, and General Mohammad al-Ghazwani, the army chief-of-staff, both of whom had recently been fired have taken control of the presidential palace. Officers seized President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi on Wednesday, along with the country’s interior minister and prime minister. Such machinations are nothing new in Mauritania, as the country has seen at least ten coups of coup attempts since 1960.
The potentially good news is that this appears to be a bloodless coup (as was the one in 2005). Even more promising, the military leaders have promised that the country will hold free and transparent democratic elections “as soon as possible.” In the interim, the country will be governed by a council of eleven leaders largely drawn from the military leadership.
On balance, however, the transition of political power by coup is disquieting. The United States, European Union, and African union all condemned the coup. That Mauritania, an exceedingly poor nation, recently discovered small reserves of oil only makes the country’s political situation all the more tenuous. One hopes the promised election materialize, but what is even more necessary for Mauritania’s future success as a nation state is a transformation within the political culture in which coups do not become the de facto default position among those who desire power or change.
Mauritania is a poor country that produces only 30% of its own food. Meanwhile the global cost of food is skyrocketing. Naturally the result is food scarcity and the impoverished, as they always do, suffer disproportionately. And Mauritania is not alone. Much of Africa is feeling the squeeze of this global crisis of food underproduction coupled with the increasingly tenuous capacity to participate in the overpriced global market.