Eric Witte August 20th, 2008
If international pressure is successful in helping to restore elected Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi to office following this month’s coup, one would hope he might begin to show a little support for democrats in other corners of Africa. Via the Zimbabwe Times, comes this ironic story of Abdallahi’s new ambassador to Zimbabwe becoming stranded and nearly homeless after his boss’s ouster. Abdallahi dispatched the ambassador in the month following Zimbabwe’s sham elections, as Robert Mugabe fought to corral what international recognition he could.
Eric Witte August 20th, 2008
Bloomberg today cites a World Bank official as saying that the body has ”temporarily suspended” payments to Mauritania following the August 6 coup:
“All installments due to the government in the capital, Nouakchott, will be ’suspended pending consultations and a thorough review of the situation,’ a World Bank official, who declined to be named, said in an interview today. The bank hasn’t decided yet whether to end its operations in the country, the official said.”
This is more good news for the budding international effort to isolate the junta and restore democratic order. The World Bank has significant leverage in Mauritania. Again, from the Bloomberg report:
“On July 31, the World Bank approved a $4.5 million loan to Mauritania to fund projects in the air and maritime transport industries in the North African nation.
Before the loan was approved, the World Bank’s portfolio in the country totaled $360 million, according to a statement on the bank’s Web site. On July 1, an agreement was signed for a $5 million loan to improve the country’s ‘economic environment.’”
