On August 3, 2005, a Colonel of the Mauritanian army and close collaborator of former Mauritanian President, Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, carried out a bloodless coup d'etat - the most recent in Africa's history. Before this day, General Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya had been ruling the vast West African country for close to 22 years. The Post's David Akana met the Mauritanian Interim Leader - Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Val in the Presidential palace in the capital Nouakchott recently. The latter fielded questions on why he staged the coup, his government's plans, the beginning of petroleum exploitation in his country and the relations between Mauritania and the African Union.

Mauritania deposited its instrument of ratification of the protocol on the African charter on human and peoples’ rights on the rights of women in Africa with the African Union on 14th December 2005. Burkina Faso and Guinea in West Africa will very shortly deposit their ratification instrument as their parliaments have respectively authorised it. Outside West Africa, Mozambique’s Parliament has also approved the ratification of the Protocol.

Mauritanian refugees in Senegal and Mali have launched new efforts to pressure the regional governments to resolve the protracted plight of the thousands of stateless black Mauritanians who were expelled from their country in 1989 through a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The General Confederation of Worker's in Mauritania (CGTM) has increased its female membership from 15 to 30% through a massive recruitment of women in the informal sector. 'The aim [of recruiting informal workers] is not only to ensure an improvement in the working conditions of these women but also in their living conditions, which will benefit their families too,' says Abdallahi Ould Mohamed, CGTM General Secretary. 'The women flooded to our union because they were carried by the hope of an improvement - however small - in their extremely difficult conditions.

Mauritanian army officers have announced the overthrow of the president and creation of a ruling military council. The military council said it had ended the "totalitarian regime" of President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya. Troops have seized control of state media and main routes in Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott.

Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Ebilmaali, editor-in-chief of the independent daily "Akhbar Nouakchott", was freed on 21 May 2005 after being held for three days. Following his release, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the police wanted him to show them the hiding place of Jemil Ould Mansour, an Islamist opposition leader he had recently interviewed.

The government of Mauritania has awarded its ministers a whopping six-fold pay increase in an attempt to clamp down on top level corruption as the West African country waits for its first offshore oilfields to come on stream later this year, officials said on Monday. They confirmed recent reports in the local media that 26 government ministers had been awarded a 633 percent pay rise to 950.000 Ouguiya (US$3,620), backdated to January.

The Mauritanian government has arrested Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's military uprising against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, who had been on the run for 16 months. Ould Hanenna was the mastermind of a failed coup attempt on 8 June 2003 which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital Nouakchott before forces loyal to Ould Taya regained control.

The Mauritanian government has announced that it has foiled a fresh coup plot and has once more accused Burkina Faso and Libya of supporting disaffected soldiers seeking to overthrow President Maaouiya Ould Taya. This is the third time in 15 months that the authorities claim to have foiled an attempted coup against Ould Taya. The former army colonel himself seized power in this desert nation of 2.8 million people through a coup in 1984.

Sghaira Mint Tesh does not remember the long-ago day she became the property of Arab slave owners. She does not know her exact age, or that of the infant daughter she cradles in her arms. The northwest African country of Mauritania outlawed slavery in 1981, but, despite government denials it still exists and anti-slavery groups say the practice remains widespread.

A Mauritanian human rights committee, after a three-year delay, finally has been able to report on the progress in the fight against slavery, female genital mutilation (FGM) and racial discrimination in the country. While the Committee mapped grave problems, authorities in Mauritania keep denying there are any matters of concern.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has congratulated Mauritania for becoming the first country in North Africa to adopt a national refugee law. In a letter sent to the Mauritanian President, Maaouye Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said the law would "pave the way for the establishment of a national legal framework for the protection of refugees and returnees, and national asylum structures that can assume responsibility for managing refugee affairs in Mauritania."

The government of Mauritania has accused Libya and Burkina Faso of backing an attempt to topple President Maaouiya Ould Taya earlier this month and has announced the arrest of 31 military officers in connection with the alleged putsch. The first news of a fresh attempt to topple Ould Taya emerged on August 9, when military and political sources reported a new wave of arrests within the armed forces.

Mauritania has foiled a plot to overthrow the country's president, its defence minister has said. Between 20 and 30 members of the army are reported to have been arrested for the alleged coup attempt. Defence Minister Baba Ould Sidi said the plotters were "the very same people who led the aborted putsch in June last year".

In the course of the discussion, which was held over two meetings, the issues of slavery and slavery-like practices, political parties, human trafficking, refugees and displaced persons, the status of women, education and the State party's national human rights plan were raised among other subjects.

Mauritania's government named nine new ministers on Sunday in the first Cabinet reshuffle since President Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya was re-elected last year. No reason was given for the reshuffle, but it comes a week after the President publicly vowed to fight corruption. Five of the outgoing ministers were accused in February of skimming 325 million ouguiyas ($1.25m) from an aid project distributing food donated by the UN World Food Program, the US and other international donors.

A Mauritanian court will rule next month in a case involving controversial business dealings by the son of France's late president Francois Mitterrand, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, a lawyer for the prosecution said Monday. Mitterrand, who is already under investigation for alleged corruption, money-laundering and illegal arms sales to Africa, particularly Angola, is accused of having cut former business partner Olivier Collonge out of profits in Iwik, a Mauritanian-based fisheries firm they owned jointly.

The government of Mauritania has refused to even consider legalising a new pro-Islamic opposition party set up by supporters of former president Mohammed Khouna Ould Haidalla. Last Wednesday they filed a request to legalise the new Party for Democratic Convergence with the Interior Ministry. However, on Sunday, Cheick Ould Horma, the party's president, said the government had refused to even accept the application for processing.

A group of prominent Mauritanians who backed former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla in his failed bid to regain power in last year’s presidential election, filed papers for the creation of a new political party on Wednesday. Opposition political sources said papers seeking to legalise Ould Haidalla’s new Party for Democratic Convergence were submitted to the Interior Ministry in the capital Nouakchott.

The editors of four independent weekly newspapers, "L'Eveil Hebdo", "L'Authentique", "Le Journal" and "Al Moujtamaa", have been sued for allegedly libelling Bodiel Ould Houmeid, a leading member of the ruling Socialist Democratic Republican Party (PRDS) and a close associate of President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. According to Media Foundation for West Africa-Mauritania's sources, the editors were first brought before the state prosecutor in the capital, Nouakchott, on 31 March 2004. After they had waited for over two hours, they were sent away and told to appear in court on 1 April.