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| Africa North |
| Protests spur Mauritania into dialogue |
| 2011-03-27 |
| [Maghrebia] They started their campaign as a simple interaction on a social networking site. Now Mauritania's youth-based movement is making their demands all the more strident, drawing supporters across the country. They "didn't necessarily know each other, but shared the same feeling that things have to change," according to group member Mohamed Salem Ould Khallih. "Then we met in the city centre, precisely on the Place des anciens blocs rouges, after deciding to call ourselves the 'February 25th Youth,'" Ould Khallih told Magharebia. Their latest Nouakchott rally underscored that they want their requests to be taken seriously. A 28-point list clearly expressed their grievances, calling for the resignation of the prime minister and the formation of a national coalition government made of technocrats, the abolition of the senate and a rise in the guaranteed minimum wage to 73,000 ouguiyas. "We're not a party, but rather a peaceful, apolitical movement made up of highly-qualified young people such as PhDs, engineers, doctors, journalists, lawyers, doctoral students, public-sector workers, unemployed people, and so on," Ould Khallih said. He added that the group doesn't want to "damage unity" but respects the opinions of others, "not even calling for the departure of President Abdel Aziz". "We know he is an elected president," Ould Khallih said, adding that he "must be the last president from the army" and that the prime minister must be replaced with "someone else who knows the country and its problems". "We have no parliament; the elected representatives who are there have seen presidents constantly coming and going for nearly twenty years. We don't want them anymore," he said. "We don't want it or the opposition. We also want the security forces to recruit educated people." Commenting on Mauritania's plans to boost fishing jobs, Ould Khallih described them as "a drop in the sea" that will not solve the problems of the past. Other groups, including labour unions, echoed their demands. "The social situation in Mauritania is currently characterised by an unprecedented deterioration in the living conditions of the population as a whole, and of workers in particular, which is essentially due to low purchasing power and on-going rises in the prices of staple foods such as rice, sugar and oil," said General Confederation of Mauritanian Workers (CGTM) chief Abdallahi Ould Mohamed. |
| Posted by:Fred |