The coup in Mauritania last week conducted by senior military leaders while President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya (see photo to left) was out of the country may not spark immediate concern for the United States or other western nations. However, it may be a harbinger of future unrest across the pan-Sahel region for months, and perhaps years, to come. When analyzed in parallel with the recent accidental death of Sudan?s newly-elected First Vice President and former rebel leader John Garang (see photo to right), US activity in the region (WAR Report) is just as likely to foment further chaos, even while limited successes are achieved in pursuing terrorist networks and building police, military, and overall security capacity in the troubled regions of sub-Sahara Africa.

Taya was overthrown by a 17-member Council for Justice and Democracy who offered up Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Vall as the new leader to guide a planned return to democracy within 24 months. Though apolitical in nature, Vall was involved in the 1984 coup that brought Taya to power and has held the significant, yet secretive, post of director of national security since 1987. That the coup occurred while Taya was attending the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (WAR Report) is ironic because it was his pro-western stance, increasingly close cooperation with the US, and diplomatic recognition of Israel that had alienated him and the country from much of the Arab and Islamic world. These factors had also alienated significant elements within the country as well.