… in villages where slavery exists the master holds on to the voter registration cards of his ‘slaves’ and negotiates the way they will vote with the politician who offers the most favors.

But the authorities, and their western backers, would have us believe that when five private press groups get a license to broadcast radio and TV for the first time this October, it will represent a major change. This opening of the airwaves is Sahara sand in our eyes to hide the real racial nature of a regime which has become an important actor in “the war on terrorism”.

It began as an angry protest over water shortages by tribes in Fassala, in Mauritania’s eastern Hodh ash-Sharqi, province and escalated into days of clashes between local people and police and gendarmes.
Local tribes met with the local prefect in hopes that he would resolve a dispute over access to a well. The prefect insulted the gathering at which point they set on him and his entourage – according to the newspapers he was ”almost lynched” by the crowd. Police and gendarmes beat back the locals.

US President Barack Obama has stopped Madagascar, Guinea and Niger from receiving trade benefits for a year. Mr Obama said that each of these countries “have experienced an undemocratic transfer of power” and that they had failed to make “continual progress” in meeting US requirements for The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.