NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — The United States said Tuesday that it would not recognise the newly-formed government in Mauritania following a coup last month.
"The United States government does not recognise the legitimacy of the so-called government announced by the High Council of State," it said in a statement released through its embassy in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
Washington "continues to recognise President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf as the legitimate government of Mauritania", the statement said.
The United States is "actively exploring" imposing financial sanctions and travel restrictions against individuals "participating in an illegal and non-democratic government."
The military junta led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz announced "the formation of a government" on Monday -- three weeks after removing the president from power.
Ould Cheikh Abdallahi last year became Mauritania's first democratically elected president since the country's independence from France in 1960.
France has also condemned the new government as illegitimate.
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