on September 25, 2019, Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Cheikh
El Ghazouani speaks during the 74th Session of the General Assembly
at the United Nations headquarters in New York. TIMOTHY A. CLARY /
AFP
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani
on Thursday carried out a government reshuffle and replaced his
prime minister, a day after prosecutors received a key report on
the dealings of former head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel
Aziz.
The Saharan state’s official news agency AMI said Prime Minister
Ismail Ould Bedda Ould Cheikh Sidiya tendered the government’s
resignation to President Ghazouani, who has been in office for one
year.
Mohamed Ould Bilal, a former political adviser, was appointed
his successor and “tasked with forming a government,” said an
official at the presidency.
Prior to his appointment as prime minister in August 2019,
Sidiya had served between 2009 and 2014 as minister of housing and
employment under Aziz.
Sidiya had also served as president of the Nouadhibou free zone
authority and was a member of the Union for the Republic (UPR), the
party founded by Aziz and taken over by President Ghazouani.
The reason for the surprise resignation was not immediately
clear.
Prosecutors in the capital Nouakchott said Wednesday that they
had received a report by a nine-member commission tasked with
shedding light on aspects of Aziz’s 2008-19 presidency.
Matters discussed in the parliamentary report include the
handling of oil revenues, the sales of state-owned property in
Nouakchott, activities of Chinese fishing company Pully Hong Dong,
and the liquidation of a state-owned firm that supplied food
products across the country, according to parliamentary
sources.
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– ‘High treason’ –
The court is required by law to open an investigation, itself a
step towards possible judicial proceedings.
map
Aziz, a former army general, ignored a summons from the
committee last month to explain the issues at stake, according to a
parliamentary official.
Mauritanian MPs adopted a law at the end of July establishing a
High Court of Justice to try the head of state and ministers in
cases of “high treason”. The court is due to be set up in the
coming months.
“This commission will be able to redefine the facts. If it is a
case of high treason committed by the former president of the
republic, only the High Court of Justice will remain competent to
judge him,” constitutional expert Lo Abdoul Gourmo told AFP on
Wednesday.
Ghazouani succeeded long-time president Aziz, whom he had
previously served as chief of staff and defence minister, on August
1 2019.
Aziz first came to power in a military coup in 2008, then won an
election in 2009, followed by another in 2014.
The new prime minister, Ould Bilal, had been a minister several
times under former president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was
deposed in the coup led by Aziz.
AFP
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/08/07/mauritanian-president-reshuffles-cabinet-after-first-year/