Dakar — Mauritantia's President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi was deposed early Wednesday in what appears to be a bloodless military coup, local sources said.
Cheikh Abdallahi, 70, was the first democratically-elected president of the country.
According to Nouakchott Info, a local daily, there is relative calm in Nouakchott, the capital, although access to the presidential palace has been blocked by security forces.
Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf is also said to have been arrested.
Wednesday's coup came about 18 months after a presidential election in 2007, which was hailed as a democratic model for the continent and the Arab world, and three years after the military coup which overthrew then-president Maaouiya Ould Taya in August 2005.
The country has experienced political instability over recent months, fueled in part by protests over rising food prices which led to a no-confidence vote in the government.
