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Troops stage 'coup' in Mauritania Troops stage 'coup' in Mauritania
(20 minutes later)
Troops in Mauritania have taken the president and prime minister into custody, officials have said. The president and prime minister of Mauritania, in north-west Africa, have been taken into custody by soldiers in an apparent military coup.
State television has stopped broadcasting amid unusual troop movements in the capital, Nouakchott, reports said. President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahia Ould Ahmed El-Ouakef are being held by unknown troops, French news agency AFP reports.
The French foreign ministry said a group of unnamed generals were holding Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf prisoner, according to AFP news agency.
Mauritania staged elections in June 2007, two years after a military coup.Mauritania staged elections in June 2007, two years after a military coup.
The country has been gripped by political crisis for a fortnight, after a vote of no confidence in the cabinet.
On Tuesday, 48 MPs walked out of the ruling party.
In the first indications of a military coup on Wednesday, state television was taken off the air amid reports of unusual troop movements in the capital, Nouakchott.
Mauritania is one of the world's poorest nations as well as its newest oil producer.
The desert nation is looking to oil revenues to boost its economy.