Updated

Dozens of Mauritanian students have used Facebook to organize a sit-in to demand the departure of the president and political reforms.

The students gathered Friday afternoon in the center of the capital bearing placards such as "the people want regime change" and "our protest is peaceful." They also burned pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

No one was hurt in the protest. In January, a businessman died after setting himself ablaze in a protest against the government.

The protest was advertised and organized on social networking site Facebook.

The government did not comment on the protest, but on Friday said they had launched a program to distribute parcels of land to benefit some 110,000 poor people living in the capital, Nouakchott.