Articles

In a surprising turn of events, even for many of Maldivians, Mohamad Nasheed, the first democratically-elected head of the state of Maldives, resigned on 07 February 2012 in the wake of anti-government protests and police mutiny. Although Mohamad Waheed Hassan Manik, who has been elevated as President (from Vice Presidentship), insists that it was “not a coup”, Nasheed claims that he was threatened with a “bloodbath” if he refused to step down. In his address to the nation soon after his resignation, Nasheed stated, “I don't want to hurt any Maldivian.

The Maldives is an archipelago nation situated in the Indian Ocean and stretches in a north-south direction off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about 700 km south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 km south-west of India. The archipelago chain of the Maldives consists of approximately 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, along the north-south direction, spread over roughly 90,000 sq.km. The archipelago is 823 km long and 130 km at its greatest width.