Mauritania
Mauritania
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This
article is about the African country. For the ancient kingdom, see Mauretania.
For the archipelago country in the Indian Ocean, see Mauritius.
For other uses, see Mauretania
(disambiguation).
Mauritania (/ˌmɒrɪˈteɪniə, ˌmɔːrɪ-/ (
listen);[9] Arabic: موريتانيا, Mūrītānyā, French: Mauritanie; Berber:
Agawej or Cengit: Pulaar: Moritani 𞤃𞤮𞤪𞤭𞤼𞤢𞤲𞤭, Wolof:
Gànnaar; Soninke: Murutaane), officially the Islamic Republic of
Mauritania (Arabic: الجمهورية الإسلامية الموريتانية), is a country in Northwest Africa.
It is the eleventh largest sovereign state in Africa and
is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to
the west, Western Sahara to the
north and northwest, Algeria to the
northeast, Mali to the
east and southeast, and Senegal to the
southwest.
The country derives
its name from the ancient Berber kingdom
of Mauretania,
which existed from the 3rd century BCE into the 7th century CE in the
modern-day Morocco and
West Algeria.
Prior to the Islamization of the country by Arab conquests in the 8th century,
Mauritania was inhabited by nomadic Berbers since the 3rd century. Mauritania
became a French colony during
the European Scramble for Africa.
Approximately 90% of Mauritania's land is within the Sahara;
consequently, the population is concentrated in the south, where precipitation
is slightly higher. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott,
located on the Atlantic coast, which is home to around one-third of the
country's 4 million people. The country's official religion is Islam, with
almost the entire population being Sunni Muslims. Arabic is
the official language, with French also
widely used due to its colonial history. Mauritania's largest ethnic group is
the Bidhan,
or white moors who make up slightly over half the population. The
second-largest group is the Haratin,
or black moors who are the descendants of slaves in Mauritania's historical
caste system, and make up approximately one-third of the population. The rest
of the population consists primarily of various sub-Saharan peoples.
Despite an
abundance of natural resources, Mauritania remains poor. The country's economy
is based on agriculture and livestock, and major industries include mining
(particularly iron ore), petroleum, and fishing.
After becoming
independent from France in 1960, Mauritania's independence has been
characterized by recurrent coups and periods of authoritarian military rule,
the most recent of which was in 2008 and
led by General Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009,
Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections,
which he won.[10]
Mauritania has been
criticized for its poor human
rights record, including
for Mauritania's
continued practice of slavery, a result of the
historical caste system, despite abolishing it in 1981 as the last country in
the world to do so and criminalizing it in 2007.
Contents
o
1.3Conflict with Western Sahara
o
1.4Ould Daddah era (1960–1978)
o
1.5CMRN and CMSN military governments (1978–1984)
o
1.6Ould Taya's rule (1984–2005)
o
1.7August 2005 military coup
o
1.82007 presidential elections
·
2Society
·
5Economy
·
7Culture
History
and politics[edit]
Main
articles: History
of Mauritania and Politics
of Mauritania
History[edit]
The ancient tribes
of Mauritania were Berber and Niger-Congo people.[11] The Bafours were
primarily agricultural, and among the first Saharan people to abandon their
historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the Sahara,
they headed south[12] Many
of the Berber tribes claimed Yemeni (and sometimes other Arab) origins. There
is little evidence to support such claims, but a 2000 DNA study
of Yemeni people suggested there might be some ancient connection between the
peoples.[13]
Other peoples also
migrated south past the Sahara to West Africa. In 1076 the Almoravids conquered
the large area of the ancient Ghana Empire.[14] The Char Bouba war (1644–74)
was the unsuccessful final effort of the peoples to repel the Yemeni Maqil Arab
invaders. The invaders were led by the Beni Hassan tribe.
The descendants of the Beni Hassan warriors became the upper stratum of Moorish society. Hassaniya,
a bedouin Arabic dialect that
derives its name from the Beni Hassan, became the dominant language among the
largely nomadic population.[15]
Berbers retained a
niche influence by producing the majority of the region's marabouts:
those who preserve and teach Islamic tradition.[15]
Colonial history[edit]
Main
article: Colonial
Mauritania
The Portuguese Empire ruled Arguin (Portuguese: Arguim)
from 1445, after Prince
Henry the Navigator set up
a feitoria,
until 1633.
After
the Portuguese, the Dutch,
and then the French,
took control of Arguin until
abandoning it in 1685.
France laid
claim to the territories of
present-day Mauritania from the Senegal River area
and northwards, starting in the late 19th century. In 1901, Xavier Coppolani took
charge of the imperial mission[16].
Through a combination of strategic alliances with Zawaya tribes,
and military pressure on the Hassane warrior nomads, he managed to extend
French rule over the Mauritanian emirates. Trarza, Brakna and Tagant were
occupied by the French armies in 1903–04, but the northern emirate of Adrar held
out longer, aided by the anti-colonial rebellion (or jihad)
of shaykh Maa al-Aynayn,
as well by insurgents from Tagant and the other regions. Adrar was finally
defeated militarily in 1912, and incorporated into the territory of Mauritania,
which had been drawn up and planned in 1904. Mauritania was part of French West Africa from
1920, as a protectorate and,
then, a colony.[17]
French rule brought
legal prohibitions against slavery and an end to inter-clan warfare. During the
colonial period, 90% of the population remained nomadic. Many sedentary
peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle
back into Mauritania. The previous capital of the country under the French
rule, Saint-Louis,
was located in Senegal, so when the country gained independence in 1960,
Nouakchott, at the time little more than a fortified village ("ksar"),
was chosen as the site of the new capital of Mauritania.[18]
After gaining
independence, larger numbers of indigenous Sub-Saharan African peoples
(Haalpulaar, Soninke,
and Wolof)
entered Mauritania, moving into the area north of the Senegal River.
Educated in French language and customs, many of these recent arrivals became
clerks, soldiers, and administrators in the new state. This occurred as the
French militarily suppressed the most intransigent Hassane tribes in the north.
This changed the former balance of power, and new conflicts arose between the
southern populations and Moors. Between these groups stood African origins, who
is part of the Arab society, integrated into a low-caste social position.[19][clarification
needed][incomprehensible]
Modern-day slavery still
exists in different forms in Mauritania.[20] According
to some estimates, thousands of Mauritanians are
still enslaved.[21][22][23] A
2012 CNN report,
"Slavery's Last Stronghold," by John D. Sutter, describes and
documents the ongoing slave-owning cultures.[24] This
social discrimination is applied chiefly against the "black Moors"
(Haratin) in the northern part of the country, where tribal elites among
"white Moors" (Bidh'an, Hassaniya-speaking Arabs and
Arabized Berbers) hold sway.[25] Slavery
practices exist also within the sub-Saharan African ethnic groups of the south.
The great Sahel droughts of
the early 1970s caused massive devastation in Mauritania, exacerbating problems
of poverty and conflict. The Arabized dominant elites reacted to changing
circumstances, and to Arab nationalist calls
from abroad, by increasing pressure to Arabize many
aspects of Mauritanian life, such as law and the education system. This was
also a reaction to the consequences of the French domination under the colonial
rule. Various models for maintaining the country's cultural diversity have been
suggested, but none have been successfully implemented.
This ethnic discord
was evident during inter-communal violence that broke out in April 1989 (the
"Mauritania–Senegal
Border War"), but has since subsided.
Mauritania expelled some 70,000 sub-Saharan African Mauritanians in the late
1980s.[26] Ethnic
tensions and the sensitive issue of slavery – past and, in some areas,
present – are still powerful themes in the country's political debate. A
significant number from all groups seek a more diverse, pluralistic society.
Conflict with Western Sahara[edit]
Nouakchott is
the capital and the largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities
in the Sahara.
Main
articles: Status
of Western Sahara and Tiris
al-Gharbiyya
The International
Court of Justice has concluded
that in spite of some evidence of both Morocco's and Mauritania's legal ties
prior to Spanish colonization, neither set of ties was sufficient to affect the
application of the UN General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to Western Sahara.[27]
Mauritania, along
with Morocco,
annexed the territory of Western Sahara in
1976, with Mauritania taking the lower one-third at the request of Spain, a
former imperial power. After several military losses from the Polisario – heavily
armed and supported by Algeria, the regional power and
rival to Morocco – Mauritania withdrew in 1979. Its claims were taken over
by Morocco.
Due to economic
weakness, Mauritania has been a negligible player in the territorial dispute,
with its official position being that it wishes for an expedient solution that
is mutually agreeable to all parties. While most of Western Sahara has been
occupied by Morocco, the UN still considers the Western Sahara a territory that
needs to express its wishes with respect to statehood. A referendum, originally
scheduled for 1992, is still supposed to be held at some point in the future,
under UN auspices, to determine whether or not the indigenous Sahrawis wish
to be independent, as the Sahrawi
Arab Democratic Republic, or to be part of
Morocco.
Ould Daddah era (1960–1978)[edit]
Main
articles: Constitution
of Mauritania, Mauritanian
People's Party, and Moktar
Ould Daddah
Mauritania became
an independent nation in November 1960.[28] In
1964 President Moktar Ould Daddah,
originally installed by the French, formalized Mauritania as a one-party state with
a new constitution,
setting up an authoritarian presidential
regime. Daddah's own Parti
du Peuple Mauritanien (PPM) became
the ruling organization in a one-party system.
The President justified this on the grounds that Mauritania was not ready for
western-style multi-party
democracy. Under this one-party
constitution, Daddah was reelected in uncontested elections in 1976 and 1978.
Daddah was ousted
in a bloodless coup on
10 July 1978. He had brought the country to near-collapse through the
disastrous war to annex the southern part of Western Sahara,
framed as an attempt to create a "Greater Mauritania".
CMRN and CMSN military governments (1978–1984)[edit]
Chinguetti was
a center of Islamic scholarship in West Africa.
Col. Mustafa Ould Salek's CMRN junta proved
incapable of either establishing a strong base of power or extracting the
country from its destabilizing conflict with the Sahrawi resistance
movement, the Polisario Front.
It quickly fell, to be replaced by another military government, the CMSN.
The energetic
Colonel Mohamed
Khouna Ould Haidallah soon emerged
as its strongman. By giving up all claims to Western Sahara, he found peace
with the Polisario and improved relations with its main backer, Algeria. But
relations with Morocco, the other party to the conflict, and its European ally
France deteriorated. Instability continued, and Haidallah's ambitious reform
attempts foundered. His regime was plagued by attempted coups and intrigue
within the military establishment. It became increasingly contested due to his
harsh and uncompromising measures against opponents; many dissidents were jailed,
and some executed. In 1981 slavery was formally abolished by law, making
Mauritania the last country in the world to do so.
Ould Taya's rule (1984–2005)[edit]
In December 1984,
Haidallah was deposed by Colonel Maaouya
Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who, while
retaining tight military control, relaxed the political climate. Ould Taya
moderated Mauritania's previous pro-Algerian stance, and re-established ties
with Morocco during the late 1980s. He deepened these ties during the late
1990s and early 2000s as part of Mauritania's drive to attract support from
Western states and Western-aligned Arab states. Mauritania has not rescinded
its recognition of Polisario's Western Saharan exile government, and remains on
good terms with Algeria. Its position on the Western Sahara conflict is, since
the 1980s, one of strict neutrality.
Ordinance 83.127,
enacted 5 June 1983, launched the process of nationalization of all land not
clearly the property of a documented owner, thus abolishing the traditional
system of land tenure. Potential nationalization was based on the concept of
"dead land",[29] i.e.,
property which has not been developed or on which obvious development cannot be
seen. A practical effect was government seizure of traditional communal grazing
lands.[30]:42,
60
Political
parties, illegal during the military
period, were legalized again in 1991. By April 1992, as civilian rule returned,
16 major political parties had been recognized; 12 major political parties were
active in 2004. The Parti Républicain Démocratique et Social (PRDS),
formerly led by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, dominated Mauritanian
politics after the country's first multi-party elections in April 1992,
following the approval by referendum of
the current constitution in July 1991. President Taya won elections in 1992 and
1997. Most opposition parties boycotted the first legislative election in 1992.
For nearly a decade the parliament was dominated by the PRDS. The opposition
participated in municipal elections in January–February 1994, and in subsequent Senate elections
– most recently in April 2004 – and gained representation at the local level,
as well as three seats in the Senate.
This period was
marked by extensive ethnic violence and human
rights abuses. Between 1990 and
1991, a campaign of particularly extreme violence took place against a
background of Arabization,
interference with blacks' association rights, expropriation and expatriation.[31]
Aerial
view of Nouakchott.
The population of Nouakchott has increased from 20,000 in 1969 to almost 1
million in 2013.
In October 1987,
the government allegedly uncovered a tentative coup d'état by
a group of black army officers, backed, according to the authorities, by Senegal.[32] Fifty-one
officers were arrested and subjected to interrogation and torture.[33] Heightened
ethnic tensions were the catalyst for the Mauritania–Senegal
Border War, which started as a result of a
conflict in Diawara between Moorish Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers
over grazing rights.[34] On
9 April 1989, Mauritanian guards killed two Senegalese.[35]
Following the
incident, several riots erupted in Bakel, Dakar and
other towns in Senegal, directed against the mainly Arabized Mauritanians who
dominated the local retail business. The rioting, adding to already existing
tensions, led to a campaign of terror against black Mauritanians,[36] who
are often seen as 'Senegalese' by Bidha'an, regardless of their nationality. As
low scale conflict with Senegal continued into 1990/91, the Mauritanian
government engaged in or encouraged acts of violence and seizures of property
directed against the Halpularen ethnic group. The tension culminated in an
international airlift agreed to by Senegal and Mauritania under international
pressure to prevent further violence. The Mauritanian Government expelled tens
of thousands of black Mauritanians. Most of these so-called 'Senegalese' had no
ties to Senegal, and many have been repatriated from Senegal and Mali after
2007.[33] The
exact number of expulsions is not known but the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that, as of June 1991, 52,995
Mauritanian refugees were living in Senegal and at least 13,000 in Mali.[30]:27
From November 1990
to February 1991, between 200 and 600 (depending on the sources) Fula and
Soninke soldiers and/or political prisoners were executed or tortured to death
by Mauritanian government forces. They were among 3,000 to 5,000 blacks –
predominantly soldiers and civil servants – arrested between October 1990
and mid-January 1991.[37][38] Some
Mauritanian exiles believe that the number was as high as 5,000 on the basis of
alleged involvement in an attempt to overthrow the government.[39]
The government
initiated a military investigation but never released the results.[39] In
order to guarantee immunity for those responsible and to block any attempts at
accountability for past abuses, the Parliament declared an amnesty[40] in
June 1993 covering all crimes committed by the armed forces, security forces as
well as civilians, between April 1989 and April 1992. The government offered
compensation to families of victims, which a few accepted in lieu of
settlement.[39] Despite
this amnesty, some Mauritanians have denounced the involvement of the
government in the arrests and killings.[30]:87
In the late 1980s,
Ould Taya had established close co-operation with Iraq,
and pursued a strongly Arab nationalist line.
Mauritania grew increasingly isolated internationally, and tensions with
Western countries grew dramatically after it took a pro-Iraqi position during
the 1991 Gulf War.
During the mid-to late 1990s, Mauritania shifted its foreign policy to one of
increased co-operation with the US and Europe. It was rewarded with diplomatic
normalization and aid projects. On 28 October 1999, Mauritania joined Egypt,
Palestine, and Jordan as the only members of the Arab League to officially
recognize Israel. Ould Taya also started co-operating with the United States in
anti-terrorism activities, a policy which was criticized by some human rights
organizations.[41][42] (See
also Foreign
relations of Mauritania.)
Road
from Nouakchott to the Mauritanian–Senegalese border
A group of current
and former Army officers launched a violent and unsuccessful coup attempt on 8
June 2003. The leaders of the attempted coup escaped from the country, but some
of them were caught, later on. Mauritania's presidential
election, its third since adopting the
democratic process in 1992, took place on 7 November 2003. Six candidates,
including Mauritania's first female and first Haratine (descended from
former slaves)
candidates, represented a wide variety of political goals and backgrounds.
Incumbent President Maaouya
Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya won
reelection with 67.0% of the popular vote, according to the official figures,
with Mohamed
Khouna Ould Haidalla finishing
second.
August 2005 military coup[edit]
On 3 August 2005, a
military coup led by Colonel Ely
Ould Mohamed Vall ended Maaouya
Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya's twenty-one years of rule. Taking advantage of Taya's
attendance at the funeral of Saudi King Fahd,
the military, including members of the presidential guard, seized control of
key points in the capital Nouakchott.
The coup proceeded without loss of life. Calling themselves the Military
Council for Justice and Democracy, the officers released the following
statement:
"The national
armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive
end to the oppressive activities of the defunct authority, which our people
have suffered from during the past years."[43]
The Military
Council later issued another statement naming Colonel Vall as president and
director of the national police force, the Sûreté Nationale. Vall,
once regarded as a firm ally of the now-ousted president, had aided Taya in the
coup that had originally brought him to power, and had later served as his
security chief. Sixteen other officers were listed as members of the Council.
Though cautiously
watched by the international community, the coup came to be generally accepted,
with the military junta organizing elections within a promised
two-year timeline. In a referendum on
26 June 2006, Mauritanians overwhelmingly (97%) approved a new constitution
which limited the duration of a president's stay in office. The leader of
the junta, Col. Vall, promised to abide by the referendum and
relinquish power peacefully. Mauritania's establishment of relations with Israel –
it is one of only three Arab states to recognize Israel – was maintained
by the new regime, despite widespread criticism from the opposition. They
considered that position as a legacy of the Taya regime's attempts to curry
favor with the West.
Parliamentary and
municipal elections in Mauritania took place on 19 November and 3 December
2006.
2007 presidential elections[edit]
Mauritania's first
fully democratic presidential elections took place on 11 March 2007. The
elections effected the final transfer from military to civilian rule following
the military coup in 2005. This was the first time since Mauritania gained
independence in 1960 that it elected a president in a multi-candidate election.[44]
The elections were
won in a second round of voting by Sidi
Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, with Ahmed Ould Daddah a
close second.
2008 military coup[edit]
Main article: 2008
Mauritanian coup d'état
On 6 August 2008,
the head of the presidential guards took over the president's palace in
Nouakchott, a day after 48 lawmakers from the ruling party resigned in protest
of President Abdallahi's policies.[which?] The
army surrounded key government facilities, including the state television
building, after the president fired senior officers, one of them the head of
the presidential guards.[45] The
President, Prime Minister Yahya
Ould Ahmed Waghef, and Mohamed Ould
R'zeizim, Minister of Internal Affairs, were arrested.
The coup was
coordinated by General Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz, former chief of
staff of the Mauritanian Army and head of the presidential guard, who had
recently been fired. Mauritania's presidential spokesman, Abdoulaye Mamadouba,
said the President, Prime Minister, and Interior Minister had been arrested by
renegade Senior Mauritanian army officers and were being held under house
arrest at the presidential palace in the capital.[46][47][48] In
the apparently successful and bloodless coup, Abdallahi's daughter, Amal Mint
Cheikh Abdallahi, said: "The security agents of the BASEP (Presidential
Security Battalion) came to our home and took away my father."[49] The
coup plotters, all dismissed in a presidential decree shortly beforehand,
included Abdel Aziz, General Muhammad Ould Al-Ghazwani, General Philippe
Swikri, and Brigadier General (Aqid) Ahmad Ould Bakri.[50]
After the coup[edit]
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz in his hometown, Akjoujt,
on 15 March 2009
A Mauritanian
lawmaker, Mohammed Al Mukhtar, claimed that many of the country's people
supported the takeover of a government that had become "an authoritarian
regime" under a president who had "marginalized the majority in
parliament."[51] The
coup was also backed by Abdallahi's rival in the 2007 election, Ahmed Ould
Daddah. However, Abdel Aziz's regime was isolated internationally, and became
subject to diplomatic sanctions and the cancellation of some aid projects. It
found few foreign supporters (among them Morocco, Libya and Iran), while
Algeria, the United States, France and other European countries criticized the
coup, and continued to refer to Abdallahi as the legitimate president of
Mauritania. Domestically, a group of parties coalesced around Abdallahi to
continue protesting the coup, which caused the junta to ban demonstrations and
crack down on opposition activists. International and internal pressure
eventually forced the release of Abdallahi, who was instead placed under house arrest
in his home village. The new government broke off relations with Israel. In
March 2010, Mauritania's female foreign minister Mint Hamdi Ould Mouknass
announced that Mauritania had cut ties with Israel in a "complete and
definitive way."[52]
After the coup,
Abdel Aziz insisted on holding new presidential elections to replace Abdallahi,
but was forced to reschedule them due to internal and international opposition.
During the spring of 2009, the junta negotiated
an understanding with some opposition figures and international parties. As a
result, Abdallahi formally resigned under protest, as it became clear that some
opposition forces had defected from him and most international players, notably
including France and Algeria, now aligned with Abdel Aziz. The United States
continued to criticize the coup, but did not actively oppose the elections.
Abdallahi's
resignation allowed the election of
Abdel Aziz as civilian president, on 18 July, by a 52% majority. Many of
Abdallahi's former supporters criticized this as a political ploy and refused
to recognize the results. They argued that the election had been falsified due
to junta control, and complained that the international community had let down
the opposition. Despite complaints, the elections were almost unanimously
accepted by Western, Arab and African countries, which lifted sanctions and
resumed relations with Mauritania. By late summer, Abdel Aziz appeared to have
secured his position and to have gained widespread international and internal
support. Some figures, such as Senate chairman Messaoud
Ould Boulkheir, continued to
refuse the new order and call for Abdel Aziz's resignation.
In February 2011,
the waves of the Arab Spring spread
to Mauritania, where thousands
of people took to the streets of the capital.[53]
In November 2014,
Mauritania was invited as a non-member guest nation to the G20 summit in
Brisbane.
Society[edit]
Demographics[edit]
Main article: Demographics
of Mauritania
A Moorish family
in the Adrar Plateau.
|
Year |
Million |
||
|
1950 |
0.7 |
||
|
2000 |
2.7 |
||
|
2018 |
4.4 |
||
As of 2018,
Mauritania had a population of approximately 4.3 million. The local population
is composed of three main ethnicities: Bidhan or
white Moors, Haratin or
black moors, and West Africans.
53% Bidhan, 30% Haratin, and 17% others. Local statistics bureau estimations
indicate that the Bidhan represent around 53% of citizens. They speak Hassaniya Arabic and
are primarily of Arab-Berber origin.
The Haratin constitute roughly 34% of the population. They are descendants of
former slaves and
also speak Arabic. The remaining 13% of the population largely consists of
various ethnic groups of West African descent. Among these are the Niger-Congo-speaking Halpulaar (Fulbe), Soninke, Bambara and Wolof.[1]
Religion[edit]
|
Mauritania Religions[1] |
||
|
Islam |
99.9% |
|
|
Christianity |
0.1% |
|
Main
articles: Religion
in Mauritania, Islam
in Mauritania, and Status of religious freedom in Mauritania
Camel market in Nouakchott
Mauritania is
almost 100% Muslim, with most inhabitants adhering to the Sunni denomination.[1] The Sufi orders,
the Tijaniyah and
the Qadiriyyah, have great influence not only in the country, but in Morocco,
Algeria, Senegal and other neighborhood countries as well. The Roman
Catholic Diocese of Nouakchott, founded in 1965,
serves the 4,500 Catholics in Mauritania (mostly foreign residents from West
Africa and Europe).
There are extreme
restrictions on freedom of religion and belief in Mauritania; it is one of
thirteen countries in the world which punishes atheism by death.[54] On
27 April 2018, The National Assembly passed a law that makes the death penalty
mandatory for anyone convicted of "blasphemous speech" and acts
deemed "sacrilegious". The new law eliminates the possibility under
article 306 of substituting prison terms for the death penalty for certain
apostasy-related crimes if the offender promptly repents. The law also provides
for a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 600,000
Ouguiyas (approximately EUR 14,630) for "offending public indecency and
Islamic values" and for "breaching Allah’s prohibitions" or
assisting in their breach.[55]
Languages[edit]
Main article: Languages
of Mauritania
Arabic is
the official and national language of Mauritania. The local spoken variety,
known as Hassaniya,
contains many Berber words
and significantly differs from the Modern
Standard Arabic that is used
for official communication. Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof also
serve as national languages.[1] French is
widely used in the media and among educated classes.[56]
Health[edit]
Main article: Health
in Mauritania
As of 2011, life expectancy at
birth was 61.14 years.[1] Per
capita expenditure on health was 43 US$ (PPP) in 2004.[57] Public
expenditure was 2% of the GDP in 2004 and private 0.9% of the GDP in 2004.[57] In
the early 21st century, there were 11 physicians per 100,000 people.[57] Infant
mortality is 60.42 deaths/1,000 live births (2011 estimate).[57]
The obesity rate
among Mauritanian women is high, perhaps in part due to the traditional
standards of beauty (in some regions in the country), in which obese women are
considered beautiful while thin women are considered sickly.[58]
Education[edit]
Main article: Education
in Mauritania
Since 1999, all
teaching in the first year of primary school is in Modern
Standard Arabic; French is
introduced in the second year, and is used to teach all scientific courses.[59] The
use of English is
increasing.[60]
Mauritania has
the University
of Nouakchott and other
institutions of higher education, but the majority of highly educated
Mauritanians have studied outside the country. Public expenditure on education
was at 10.1% of 2000–2007 government expenditure.[57]
Urbanization[edit]
Main article: Cities
of Mauritania
|
·
v ·
t ·
e Largest cities or towns in Mauritania |
|
||||||||||
|
Rank |
Pop. |
|||||||||
|
1 |
958,399 |
|||||||||
|
2 |
118,167 |
|||||||||
|
3 |
50,026 |
|||||||||
|
4 |
47,725 |
|||||||||
|
5 |
45,539 |
|||||||||
|
6 |
44,469 |
|||||||||
|
7 |
33,581 |
|||||||||
|
8 |
26,420 |
|||||||||
|
9 |
25,190 |
|||||||||
|
10 |
22,796 |
|||||||||
Administrative
divisions[edit]
Main
articles: Regions
of Mauritania and Departments
of Mauritania
The government
bureaucracy is composed of traditional ministries, special agencies, and parastatal companies.
The Ministry of Interior spearheads a system of regional governors and prefects
modeled on the French system of local administration. Under this system,
Mauritania is divided into 15 regions (wilaya or régions).
Control is tightly
concentrated in the executive branch of the central government, but a series of
national and municipal elections since 1992 have produced limited decentralization.
These regions are subdivided into 44 departments (moughataa).
The regions and capital district (in alphabetical order) and their capitals
are:
|
Region |
Capital |
# |
|
1 |
||
|
2 |
||
|
3 |
||
|
4 |
||
|
5 |
||
|
6 |
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|
7 |
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|
8 |
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|
9 |
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|
10 |
||
|
10 |
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10 |
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11 |
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|
12 |
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13 |
Geography[edit]
Main article: Geography of Mauritania
Topography of Mauritania
Mauritania is in
the western region of the continent of Africa, and is generally flat, its
1,030,700 square kilometres forming vast, arid plains broken by occasional
ridges and clifflike outcroppings.[61] It
borders the North Atlantic Ocean,
between Senegal and Western Sahara, Mali and Algeria.[61] It
is considered part of both the Sahel and
the Maghreb.
A series of scarps face southwest, longitudinally bisecting these plains in the
center of the country. The scarps also separate a series of sandstone plateaus,
the highest of which is the Adrar Plateau,
reaching an elevation of 500 metres.[62] Spring-fed
oases lie at the foot of some of the scarps. Isolated peaks, often rich in
minerals, rise above the plateaus; the smaller peaks are called guelbs and the
larger ones kedias. The concentric Guelb er Richat is
a prominent feature of the north-central region. Kediet ej Jill,
near the city of Zouîrât,
has an elevation of 1,000 metres and is the highest peak.
Approximately
three-quarters of Mauritania is desert or semidesert.[63] As
a result of extended, severe drought, the desert has been expanding since the
mid-1960s. The plateaus gradually descend toward the northeast to the
barren El Djouf,
or "Empty Quarter," a vast region of large sand dunes that merges
into the Sahara Desert.
To the west, between the ocean and the plateaus, are alternating areas of
clayey plains (regs) and sand dunes (ergs), some of which shift from place to
place, gradually moved by high winds. The dunes generally increase in size and
mobility toward the north.
Belts of natural
vegetation, corresponding to the rainfall pattern, extend from east to west and
range from traces of tropical forest along the Sénégal River to
brush and savanna in the southeast. Only sandy desert is found in the centre
and north of the country.
The Richat Structure,
dubbed the "Eye of the Sahara", is a formation of rock resembling
concentric circles in the Adrar Plateau,
near Ouadane,
west–central Mauritania.
Economy[edit]
Main
articles: Economy
of Mauritania, Transport
in Mauritania, and List
of power stations in Mauritania
Graphical depiction of Mauritania's product exports in
28 color-coded categories
Despite being rich
in natural resources, Mauritania has a low GDP.[64] A
majority of the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a
livelihood, even though most of the nomads and many subsistence farmers were
forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.[64] Mauritania
has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account for almost 50% of total
exports. Gold and copper mining companies are opening mines in the interior.
The country's
first deepwater port opened
near Nouakchott in
1986. In recent years, drought and economic mismanagement have resulted in a
buildup of foreign debt. In March 1999, the government signed an agreement with
a joint World Bank-International
Monetary Fund mission on a
$54 million enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF). Privatization
remains one of the key issues. Mauritania is unlikely to meet ESAF's annual GDP
growth objectives of 4–5%.
Oil was
discovered in Mauritania in 2001 in the offshore Chinguetti field.
Although potentially significant for the Mauritanian economy, its overall
influence is difficult to predict. Mauritania has been described as a
"desperately poor desert nation, which straddles the Arab and African
worlds and is Africa's newest, if small-scale, oil producer."[65] There
may be additional oil reserves inland in the Taoudeni basin,
although the harsh environment will make extraction expensive.[66]
The United Arab
Emirates government, via its pilot green city Masdar,
installed new solar plants supply an additional 16.6 megawatts of electricity.
The plants will power about 39,000 homes and save 27,850 tonnes of carbon
emissions per year.[67] Mauritania
is ranked second in the index of geopolitical gains and losses after energy
transition (GeGaLo Index), making it potentially one of the main winners in the
global transition to renewable energy.[68]
Human
rights[edit]
Main article: Human
rights in Mauritania
Mauritanian blogger and political prisoner Mohamed
Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir
The Abdallahi
government was widely perceived as corrupt and restricted access to government
information. Sexism, racism, female
genital mutilation, child
labour, human
trafficking, and the political
marginalization of largely southern-based ethnic groups continued to be
problems.[69] Homosexuality is
illegal and is a capital offense in
Mauritania.[70]
Following the 2008
coup, the military government of Mauritania faced severe international sanctions
and internal unrest. Amnesty
International accused it of
practicing coordinated torture against criminal and political detainees.[71] Amnesty
has accused the Mauritanian legal system, both before and after the 2008 coup,
of functioning with complete disregard for legal procedure, fair trial, or
humane imprisonment. The organization has said that the Mauritanian government
has practiced institutionalized and continuous use of torture throughout its
post-independence history, under all its leaders.[72][73][74]
According to the US
State Department 2010 Human Rights Report,[75] abuses
in Mauritania include:
...mistreatment
of detainees and prisoners; security force impunity; lengthy pretrial
detention; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrests; limits on freedom of the
press and assembly; corruption; discrimination against women; female genital
mutilation (FGM); child marriage; political marginalization of southern-based
ethnic groups; racial and ethnic discrimination; slavery and slavery-related
practices; and child labor.
Mauritanian
blogger Mohamed
Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir was sentenced
to death after he wrote an article critical of religion and the caste system in
Mauritania. He is a designated prisoner
of conscience by Amnesty
International.[76]
In July 29, 2019,
the government finally released Mohamed Mkhaïtir after a long campaign from
rights groups to release him.[77] He
left Mauritania and is now living in Europe.[78]
Modern slavery[edit]
Main article: Slavery
in Mauritania
Slavery persists
in Mauritania, despite it being outlawed.[79] It
is the result of a historical caste system,
resulting in descent-based slavery.[79][80] Those
enslaved are darker-skinned Haratin,
with their owners being lighter-skinned Moors.[80]
In 1905, the French
colonial administration declared an end of slavery in Mauritania, with very
little success.[81] Although
nominally abolished in 1981, it was not illegal to own slaves until 2007.
The US State
Department 2010 Human Rights Report states, "Government
efforts were not sufficient to enforce the antislavery law. No cases have been
successfully prosecuted under the antislavery law despite the fact that de
facto slavery exists in Mauritania."[75]
Only one person,
Oumoulmoumnine Mint Bakar Vall, has been prosecuted for owning slaves and she
was sentenced to six months in jail in January 2011.[82] In
2012, it was estimated that 10% to 20% of the population of Mauritania (between
340,000 and 680,000 people) live in slavery.[83]
In 2012, a
government minister stated that slavery "no longer exists" in
Mauritania.[84] However,
according to the Walk Free
Foundation's Global Slavery Index, there
were an estimated 90,000 enslaved people in Mauritania in 2018 or around 2% of
the population.[85]
Obstacles to ending
slavery in Mauritania include:
·
The difficulty of
enforcing any laws in the country's vast desert[83]
·
Poverty that limits
opportunities for slaves to support themselves if freed[83]
·
Belief that slavery
is part of the natural order of this society.[83]
Culture[edit]
Qur'an collection
in a library in Chinguetti
See also: Mauritanian
cuisine, Music
of Mauritania, and Sport
in Mauritania
Filming for several
documentaries and films has taken place in Mauritania, including Fort Saganne (1984), The Fifth Element (1997), Winged Migration (2001),
and Timbuktu (2014).
The T'heydinn is
part of Moorish oral
tradition.[86]
The libraries of
Chinguetti contain thousands of medieval manuscripts.[87][88][89][90]
See
also[edit]
·
Index
of Mauritania-related articles
References[edit]
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Further
reading[edit]
·
Foster, Noel
(2010). Mauritania: The Struggle for Democracy. Lynne Rienner
Publishers. ISBN 978-1935049302.
·
Hudson, Peter
(1991). Travels in Mauritania. Flamingo. ISBN 978-0006543589.
·
Murphy, Joseph E
(1998). Mauritania in Photographs. Crossgar Press. ISBN 978-1892277046.
·
"Slavery's last
stronghold". CNN. Archived from
the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
·
Pazzanita, Anthony
G (2008). Historical Dictionary of Mauritania. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810855960.
·
Ruf, Urs
(2001). Ending Slavery: Hierarchy, Dependency and Gender in Central
Mauritania. Transcript Verlag. ISBN 978-3933127495.
·
Sene, Sidi
(2011). The Ignored Cries of Pain and Injustice from Mauritania. Trafford
Publishing. ISBN 978-1426971617.
Yorumlar