Mauritania census protests turn violent

2011-09-26

Violent clashes between Mauritanian anti-riot police and protestors from the "Hands Off My Nationality" movement continued Sunday (September 25th) in the southern town of Kaedi (Gorgol wilaya), ANI reported. Protestors in Mauritania, as well as expatriates, have been rallying for months over claims that the national census excludes the country's black population.

The moderate Islamist National Rally for Reform and Development (RNRD, or Tawassoul) political party, the Alliance for Justice and Democracy – Movement for Renovation (AJD-MR) and the Rally for Democratic Forces (RFD) issued statements denouncing the week-end violence and calling for the census to be suspended until the claims of discrimination are addressed. Mauritanian human rights organizations AVOMM and OCVIDH are among the census opponents.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/09/26/newsbrief-06.