Mauritania: A Hundred "Foreigners" Arrested During an Anti-Government Demonstration.

A hundred "foreigners" were arrested in Mauritania during the demonstrations which broke out after the announcement of the victory of the presidential candidate of power on Saturday , announced Tuesday June 25 the Minister of the Interior. In addition, the Internet had been completely cut off in the country since the middle of the afternoon.

The ambassadors of Senegal, Mali and Gambia were summoned in the afternoon by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ismaïl Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The latter urged them to ask their nationals to "refrain from participating in demonstrations and anything that disturbs public order in Mauritania" , he explained on national television.

“There is a foreign hand behind these events ,” Interior Minister Ahmedou Ould Abdallah said of these protests, referring to a “destabilization plan” for the country.

"We have arrested a hundred foreigners whose presence in contesting an election in a country that is not theirs cannot be explained ," he added. He then said that this foreign presence was "in relation to certain candidates" .