The Mauritanian military coup, oil and us

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"So, of course, the soldiers will NOT return to barracks. Yes, they will hand over power to themselves, like all military despots do in Africa: Togo's Eyadema, Sudan's El Bashir, Gambia's Jammeh, Central African Republic's Bokassa, Uganda's Museveni. The list is long. All those soldiers who seized power with the now outmoded excuse of saving the country, only to stay on and become more corrupt, more ruthless and more deserving of condemnation than the despots they removed.

"The story is all too familiar for elaboration. Suffice it to say that if the African Union, the United States and European Union want to stop the occurrence of military coups on the continent, they have to stop the prevalence of the conditions that cause military coups in Africa. They have to help the people of this beleaguered continent end the ugly specter of never-ending sultanism, one-man rule."

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