Mauritania's coup leaders have announced they will appoint a government to run the country until new elections, defying a chorus of international demands to restore the first democratically elected president. Soldiers in the northwest African country toppled Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi on Wednesday after he tried to sack senior officers. Abdallahi is being held at a secret location. His daughter, released from house arrest with the rest of his family late on Thursday, said Abdallahi had been in need of medical attention. “His doctor visited him last night, and said he has to have a little operation, but it is not serious,” she told Reuters shortly after her release from house arrest, declining to give details of the exact nature of the president's medical condition. The only contact Abdallahi had been allowed with his family was a handwritten list brought to the presidential palace by soldiers, in which he asked for antibiotics, clothes, books, and aftershave, she said. Mauritania spans Arab and black Africa and has been an ally in the U.S.-led war on terror as al Qaeda has stepped up attacks in the region in recent years. The country is also Africa's newest oil producer although production remains small. Washington has joined international condemnation of Abdallahi's ouster, demanding the restoration of his government and announcing the suspension on Thursday of non-humanitarian aid, worth over $15 and mostly military-to-military funding. The European Union also threatened to cut aid. The United Nations, Arab League and African Union also condemned the coup. Presidential guard chief Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who launched Wednesday's coup after Abdallahi sacked him, and other top military commanders, has formed an 11
