Disputes - international:
none
Illicit drugs:
transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for the US and
Europe
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Mauritania
Introduction Mauritania
Background:
Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern
third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but
relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario
guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Opposition
parties were legalized and a new constitution approved in 1991. Two
multiparty presidential elections since then were widely seen as
flawed, but October 2001 legislative and municipal elections were
generally free and open. Mauritania remains, in reality, a one-party
state. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between
its black minority population and the dominant Maur (Arab-Berber)
populace.
Geography Mauritania
Location:
Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
Senegal and Western Sahara
Geographic coordinates:
20 00 N, 12 00 W