Nouakchott - Mauritanian President Mohammed Old Abdel-Aziz on Friday asked reporters "not to put national security at risk" by covering troop movements within the country. The president's remarks came after many news websites and a few newspapers reported that troops supported by armour had been deployed to the remote desert region at the north, where Mauritanian security forces are trying to uproot fighters from al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.
"Publishing news on national defence puts national security at risk," Abdel-Aziz said in a press conference in Rosso, on the country's southern border with Senegal, some 200 kilometres south of the capital, Nouakchott.
"I ask you to stop and refrain from publishing news about troop movements because it is contrary to the moral obligations observed by journalists the world over," Abdel-Aziz said, adding that he intended to revive the policy of punishing journalists who published such reports.
