Mauritania's deposed President, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, has been released from house arrest by security forces who overthrew him in August. He was taken from his home town of Lemden, where he had been under house arrest, to his house in the capital, Nouakchott, where he was freed. There has been intense international pressure on the coup leaders to return the country to democracy. France and the US had cancelled their aid, pending Mr Abdallahi's release. The African Union also suspended the country following the 6 August coup. Mr Abdallahi became Mauritania's first democratically elected leader in 2007 after a coup two years earlier, partly instigated by General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. On 6 August, Mr Abdallahi, as president, tried to dismiss four senior army officers, including Gen Abdelaziz, the head of the presidential guard, who responded by launching the coup. It came after a fortnight of political crisis following a vote of no confidence in the cabinet. Gen Abdelaziz appointed a transitional government to stay in power until new elections, to be organised in late 2009. Mauritania has a long history of coups, with the military involved in nearly every government since its independence from France in 1960. Source: BBC