Mauritania 2018

The population of Mauritania in 2018 was estimated to be around 4.4 million people. The majority of the population are Sunni Muslims, with a few small minorities including Afro-Mauritanians and expatriates from other African countries. The main economic activities are fishing, mining, and agriculture. In terms of foreign relations, Mauritania has diplomatic ties with many countries including the United States, France, and other African nations. According to extrareference, the country is also a member of several international organizations such as the Arab League and the African Union. In terms of politics, Mauritania is an Islamic republic governed by a president who is also the supreme leader of the country’s Islamic faith.

Yearbook 2018

Mauritania. In September elections were held for Parliament and the City Council. At the same time, the very first elections were also held for 13 regional councils. More parties than ever, about 100, took part in the elections. The Union Union of the Republic (UPR) government received a total of 89 of the 157 seats in Parliament and thus its own majority. According to Countryaah.com, Nouakchott is the capital city of Mauritania, a country located in Western Africa. The Opposition Alliance National Democracy and Unity Forum (FNDU), which boycotted the 2013 election, received a total of 29 seats, 14 of which went to the Islamist party Tewassoul. The regional and local elections were also a great success for UPR, with a majority in all regional councils and in about 75% of the municipalities.

• According to Abbreviationfinder: MRT is an three letter acronym for Mauritania.

In October, Mohamed Salem Ould Béchir became new Prime Minister. He succeeded Yahya Ould Hademine, who instead became the advisor to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. It also became a new person at the post of defense minister in the form of former army chief of staff Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. Other ministers were allowed to remain.

At year-end, the currency was devalued so that 10 ouquiya became 1 ouquiya. At the same time, a six-month-long process of replacing the banknotes was initiated. Many Mauretanians chose to buy US dollars and euros for their old banknotes. At a meeting in Rwanda’s capital Kigali in March, Mauritania signed an agreement to lead the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). A total of 44 African countries signed the agreement during the year.

In March, three people were sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison for slavery. The custom is deeply rooted in society and tens of thousands of people are still estimated to live as slaves. This is despite the fact that slavery has been illegal since 1981 and that in recent years the authorities have sharpened their stance on the issue. Citing Mauritania’s failure to do so in November, the United States broke an agreement on favorable trade terms in November. Mauritania reacted strongly and called the decision a betrayal.

In August, the first border crossing between Mauritania and Algeria was opened since the countries became independent. The border crossing is located near the Algerian city of Tindouf.

Dictionary of History

Mauritania is a West African state. A place of trade between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa since ancient times, Mauritania saw the flourishing of a series of important state realities including the kingdom of Ghana (7th-11th century ca.). The union between the Berber communities and the sub-Saharan population with Arabic-speaking groups dedicated to trade and pastoralism led to the formation of the so-called Moorish culture and the birth of regional confederations. With the expansion of the Almoravid dynasty (➔ Almoravidi) (11th century) there was a spread of Islam and an advance of linguistic Arabization. The coast of the Mauritania was touched for the first time by the Portuguese in 1442. Between the 15th and 18th centuries. exchanges with Europeans increased. The French, operating from neighboring Senegal, imposed themselves in the region in the second half of the century. 19 °. After a campaign of military conquest, France established the protectorate on the Mauritania in 1903, then aggregated to French West Africa and erected as a separate colony in 1920. During the twentieth century a historic division continued, still rooted today and a source of conflict., between the most strongly Arabized element (the so-called white Mauritanians), in the Center-North, and the black-African one prevalent in the South (black Mauritans), often enslaved to the former in relationships of strong dependence and forms of virtual slavery. Autonomous since 1958, it became independent in 1960. The process was opposed by Morocco, which put forward historical claims on the country. First head of state was thenationalist leader Moktar Ould Daddah, author of a one-party and authoritarian turn and supporter of a policy of intensive Arabization and Islamization, opposed by Berbers and groups from the South. His attempt to proceed with the annexation of a part of the former Spanish possession of the Sahara Western (1976), sparked the reaction of the separatists of the Frente Polisario and a war situation that was the first cause of a military coup against Ould Daddah (1978) and therefore of the Mauritanian withdrawal from the Sahara (1979). In 1984 Colonel Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya took office and promoted a return to multi-partyism (1986) and internal reconciliation, obtaining re-election several times (1992, 1997 and 2003). In 1989 Mauritania was involved in a brief border war with Senegal. In 2005 a coup I bring to power Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, who launched a constitutional reform in a democratic sense (2006) and called new elections (2007), won by Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. He was removed the following year by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, confirmed as president of the country in the 2009 elections. Mauritania is one of the rare African countries in which traditional forms of slavery survive, although officially abolished in 1980. For some years now governments have undertaken systematic policies to eliminate the phenomenon, however the persistence of the racial conflict between the Arabized element and groups in the South is the primary cause of serious problems in the application of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all citizens.