|
 NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - The former police colonel who seized power in Africa's newest crude exporter says he believes Mauritania can avoid the corruption and violence that have accompanied oil wealth elsewhere on the continent.
Mauritania, which borders Mali, Senegal and Algeria, began pumping oil in February. Many are watching the impoverished northwest African nation — 40 percent of its 3 million citizens live below the poverty line — to see if it will be able to cope with the sudden wealth.
"Anything can be a curse. But oil can also be a blessing," Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall said in a wide-ranging interview Saturday on topics from illegal African migration to Europe to Mauritanians detained at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. "For us it is going to be a blessing."
|