West African leaders 'flood' inauguration of new Mauritania president

<p>Mauritania’s new president has taken the oath of office, completing the West African nation’s first peaceful transfer of power.</p> <p>A number of presidents in the West African subregion were in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott for the event that officially brought President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani into office.</p> <p>Some of the attendee presidents were: <ul> <li>Senegal’s Macky Sall</li> <li>Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara</li> <li>Niger’s Mahammadou Issoufou</li> <li>Burkina Faso’s Roch Marc Kabore</li> <li>Mali’s Ibrahim Boubakar Keita</li> <li>Guinea-Bissau’s José Mario Vaz</li> </ul></p> <p>In in his first speech on Thursday, President Ghouzani said Mauritania’s people had written an important page in the country’s history and confirmed the maturity of its political system.</p> <p>He succeeds President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was barred from seeking a third term under the constitution. Aziz had backed Ghazouani, a former defense minister, in the June election that Ghazouani won with 52% of the vote. </p> <p>Turnout was 62%. The opposition rejected the results and vowed to challenge the outcome but the Constitutional Court okayed the results paving the way for August 1 inauguration.</p> <p>Mauritania, a moderate Islamic republic, has suffered five coups since independence from France in 1960. It has been led by military rulers for much of that time.</p>