Mauritania Sanctions Lifted

The African Union has moved to remove sanctions against the Mauritanian junta in the run-up to a July 18th election to replace the transitional government with a constitutional one. The suspension of Mauritania from the A.U. has also been removed.

"(The Council) looks forward to the presidential election ... and requests that all efforts be deployed for the election to take place in the required conditions of transparency, fairness and freedom," it said.

It said it would keep watching the situation in Mauritania to make sure it stayed on track and in case other measures needed to be taken, potentially including the re-imposition of sanctions.

Here's hoping it does stay on track. There are dangers abundant in the region, and having no way to cooperate with Mauritania in combating those dangers was only helping the enemies of civilization.