Wednesday
Apr042012
Mauritania Feature: The Popular Unrest Grows (Whitaker)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 9:45Protest in Mauritania, 12 March 2012
Last month we posted "Mauritania Photo Feature: The Emergence of Protest?". Now Brian Whitaker removes the question mark over the demonstrations, noting and analysing the latest signs of challenge to the regime:
Has the Arab Spring reached Mauritania? Popular unrest is clearly growing and yesterday tens of thousands took to the streets of the capital, Nouakchott, calling on the president to step down.
Up to now, this has largely gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, apart from a few tweets and blog posts. Mauritania, after all, is one of the more obscure members of the Arab League and none of the big powers take much interest in it, politically or strategically.