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| Africa North |
| Mauritania police beat protesters urging poll boycott |
| 2013-11-19 |
| [Al Ahram] Mauritanian police on Monday crushed a protest by hundreds of youths demanding a boycott of upcoming elections, wounding several. An AFP news hound saw police beat the activists and spray them with tear gas as they waved placards and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud outside the offices of the election commission in the capital Nouakchott, calling for a boycott of Saturday's parliamentary and local elections. "The police violently attacked the demonstrators despite the peaceful nature of their movement, using tear gas and batons," said Idoumou Ould Mohammed Lemine, front man for the Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD) that organised the protest. "Many people, mostly women, were maimed and transported to hospitals in Nouakchott," he added, condemning "these acts of violence which are contrary to democracy and the free expression that the government prides itself on". The injuries appeared to be minor, according to the AFP journalist at the scene. Mauritania, a mainly Musselmen republic and a former French colony, is seen by Western leaders as strategically important in the fight against Al-Qaeda-linked groups within its own borders, in neighbouring Mali and across Africa's Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... . |
| Posted by:Fred |