20110426
reuters

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Security forces using teargas and batons dispersed several hundred anti-government protesters in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on Monday, the most serious clash in the West African state for nearly two months.

Inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, critics of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz began street protests in late February in the poverty-stricken desert country, although their number has rarely risen above one thousand.

"Mauritanians are fed up with this regime, and it is time that we said it loud and clear," Cheikh Ould Jiddou, a leader of the protest, told Reuters.

Mauritanian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Demonstrators shouting slogans and carrying signs calling for Abdel Aziz's departure blocked traffic for at least two hours around the main square before riot police fired teargas grenades and used batons to clear them.

Witnesses said at least 20 people were arrested.

Abdel Aziz came to power first in a coup in 2008 then in 2009 won an election, which has largely restored stability but failed to bridge the gap between the rich, mostly Arab elite and the largely poorer African classes.

He has been at the forefront of the region's fight against local al Qaeda factions but some rivals accuse him of using the Islamist threat to weaken his opponents while those around him have been accused of corruption.