Mauritania mourns former junta leader Ely Ould Mohammed Vall

Mauritania’s president has declared 3 days of national mourning following the death of former military junta leader Ely Ould Mohamed Vall.

Mohamed Vall led a junta that ruled the country between 2005 and 2007.

Family sources told AFP he was ill and died of heart attack on Friday.

Vall served as the head of a transition government that handed over power to Mauritania’s first democratically elected president Sidi Ould Chiekh Abdallahi.

Despite leading a 2005 coup against dictator Maaouiya Ould Taya, Vall kept a promise to step aside for elections 2 years later.

He was a longtime critic of current president Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz after the incumbent removed Cheikh Abdallahi from power in a separate 2008 coup.