Nouakchott, Mauritania ? A military junta overthrew Mauritania’s U.S.-allied president while he was abroad Wednesday, prompting celebrations in this oil-rich Islamic nation that looked increasingly to the West amid alleged threats from al-Qaida linked militants.

The junta promised to yield to democratic rule within two years, but African leaders and the United States were quick to condemn the coup, declaring that the days of authoritarianism and military rule must end across the continent.

President Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya, who himself seized power in a 1984 coup and dealt ruthlessly with his opponents, had traveled to Saudi Arabia to attend the funeral of King Fahd when presidential guardsmen cut broadcasts from the national radio and television stations at dawn and seized a building housing the army chief of staff headquarters.

Later in the day, the junta named national police chief Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall as the country’s new leader.

Vall, 55, was considered a confident of Taya and developed a reputation of calmness and reserve while serving as chief since 1987.