There is a beg stink over there because of the ruling junta. From AFP today:
The European Union will consider "appropriate measures" to punish Mauritania after it failed to take sufficient steps toward restoring constitutional rule, the French foreign ministry said Thursday.
The move to impose sanctions came as a one-month deadline set by the European Union for Mauritania's ruling junta to free deposed president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi expired, with no sign of a breakthrough.
. . .
Mauritania's first democratically-elected president was ousted on August 6, just hours after he issued a decree firing the military's top brass, including General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Ould Abdel Aziz led the putschists and, since the coup, his junta has taken over the powers of the president and formed a new government with the support of a majority of deputies in parliament.
It has categorically refused international demands to reinstate Abdallahi and has failed to set a date for fresh elections.
Pro-democracy activists held small-scale protests Wednesday but the coup leaders appear secure in power.
