Country overview: Mauritania

In addition to factors associated with Mauritania’s Sahelian location, it shares similar features with Mali and other Sahelian countries, as discussed below. This is evident in the structural roots of the armed conflicts and insecurities triggered by the spillover effect of insecurity experienced by its Sahelian neighbours.

Saharan Front,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 25, 1, Jan., pp. 148-156. Also, Wolfram Lacher. Organized Crime and Terrorism in the Sahel: Drivers, Actors, Options. Stifitung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP Comment, No. 1 (January 2011).

28 Coulibaly, Oumar. Notre enquête: L’armée malienne: Clochardisée par 20 ans de gestion chaotique. Avail-able at http://www.maliweb.net/societe/notre-enquete-larmee-malienne-clochardisee-20-ans-gestion-chao-tique-412452.html (accessed August 29, 2014).

29 Republic of Mali, Livre Blanc sur le ‘Problem du Nord’ du Mali, Bamako: Official publication of the Republic of Mali, December 1994; See also the Algiers accord, available at:

http://saadlounes.a.s.f.unblog.fr/files/2010/05/accordsdalgerjuillet2006.pdf (accessed August 22, 2014).

30 Dramé, Tiébilé. La situation politique et sécuritaire, un an après le coup d’état du 22 mars 2013” Speech made on 20 March 2013, at Laïco El Farouk hotel in Bamako. Available at: http://www.maliweb.net/politique/la-situation-politique-et-securitaire-un-an-apres-le-coup-detat-du-22-mars-2013-136474.html (accessed August 27, 2014). Author’s translation.

The context of Mauritania

Mauritania has become an important player in security and political developments in the Sahel. Geographically, ethnically, culturally, politically and diplomatically, the country is uniquely positioned between North and West Africa. It shares borders with Algeria and Western Sahara in the North, with Mali (Hodh Charghi and Hodh El Gharbi regions) in the east and south-east and Senegal in the south-west. This unique position creates sociopolitical challenges, such as the vastness of its territory, which borders Mali and Algeria across thousands of kilometers. This exposes Mauritania to the effects of regional armed conflicts and insecurities, including refugee inflow, and the activities of irredentist groups.

Politically, Mauritania has been dominated by military coups and authoritarian military rule. Since 1978, with the exception of a 17-month democratic interlude in 2006-2008, military officers who came to power through coups d’état have ruled the country. The country has possibly the highest numbers of coups, coups attempts, and coup plots in West Africa.³¹

Economically, Mauritania has an estimated population of 3.1 million, 59 per cent of which approximately live in rural areas. This population is largely composed of children under 14 (44.5 per cent). People aged over 64 account for only 3.6 per cent.

Practically, therefore, only about 52 per cent of the population constitutes a potential labor force (14-64 years).³² Mauritania is richly endowed with iron ore, gold, copper, fishery resources and an immense agricultural potential. Mauritania’s economy is mainly based on three main areas. Cereals (millet, sorghum, paddy rice, maize, wheat, barley), livestock (cattle, camels, goats and sheep) and fishing largely dominate the primary sector. The secondary sector is dominated by extractive industries (oil, gold, copper, iron); and the tertiary sector, by transport and communication. The mining sector is the main driver of economic growth in contemporary Mauritania, as part of the secondary sector that accounts for 24.8 per cent of GDP in 2013 (mining contributes 20 per cent of GDP). Since 2009, the Société Nationale des Industries Minières has signaled its ambition to modernize and develop a program aimed at boosting mining national production. The production of iron rose, for example, rose from 11.417 tons in 2010 to 11.975 tons in 2013.³³

It is Mauritania’s social composition and the challenges therein that dominates the country’s political landscape. Mauritanians are all Muslims and made up of mixed Moor/black (40 per cent), Moor (30 per cent) and black (30 per cent).³⁴ Culturally, there are two dominant groups, the light-skinned Arab-Berbers and the Black-Africans. The country has suffered social and political tensions, fueled by ethnic

31 N’Diaye, Boubacar. The Legacy of Mauritania’s Colonels: West Africa’s Next Crisis? Unpublished paper under review.

32 Direction du Travail, Ministère de l’Emploi, Office National de la Statistique, Ministère des Affaires Econom-iques et du Développement, Bureau International du Travail, Mauritanie - Enquête de référence nationale sur l’emploi et le secteur informel 2013 (ENRE-SI), Nouakchott, Catalogue de données MRT-ENRE-SI-2013-V01, Octobre, 2014, 47p, (Réédition).

33 République Islamique de Mauritanie, Rapport macroéconomique 2013 et prévisions 2014-2015, Nouak-chott, Ministère des Affaires Economiques et du Développement, Rapport de la Direction Générale de la Poli-tique Economique et des Stratégies du Développement, Direction de la Prévision et de l’Analyse Economiques, Février, 2014, p.8.

34 See http://countrystudies.net/Mauritania.

divisions, the monopoly by a group (Berber) over the State, and the lingering effects of slavery and political volatility (especially between 1989 and 1992). A major socio-political development is the emergence of the Haratines as a potential social and political force whose leaders fight slavery as currently practiced, and its vestiges in Mauritanian society. ³⁵

Structural causes of conflict and insecurity

The post-colonial State: The insecurity felt by most Mauritanians has to do with the challenge of widespread poverty and unmet basic needs, the unresponsive nature of the postcolonial State and from the absence of physical and psychological safety common to the Sahel region due to terrorism and radicalism. At independence, Mauritania suffered from the complete absence of administrative, institutional or social infrastructures needed for national cohesion and a responsive government.

The politics of identity: The division between Berbers (Arabs) and Black Africans is a major sociopolitical fault line in Mauritania. This has been exacerbated by the inability of the immediate postcolonial era leaders to craft a national identity. The policies pursued to manufacture an exclusively Arab identity created anxiety and fear for a large portion of the non-Arab population. This gap between mostly the black component of Mauritania’s population and the State is indeed a source of insecurity because of the unpredictability of what may result from any incident.

Environmental stress: Mauritania has a large proportion of its territory covered by desert and characterized by a chronic rainfall deficit that make agriculture in the north and agricultural lands in the south haphazard and heavily dependent on nature’s whims. Since in 1968, Mauritania has fallen victim to recurring droughts that have devastated its livestock and subjected large proportions of the nomadic and sedentary populations to famine and chronic malnutrition. The shrinking size of grazing areas has also been an additional source of insecurity, triggering serious crises and conflict between communities within Mauritania and across international boundaries.

Geo-political environment: As a State in a particularly conflict-ridden environment, Mauritania is affected by the decades of tensions and rivalries between Morocco and Algeria over the Western Sahara.

Mauritania has more than 5000 kilometers of land borders to control in addition to 750 kilometers of its Atlantic coastline. Given the intense trafficking of all kinds and the atmosphere of violence and uncertainty in the Sahel/West African region this is a major challenge for Mauritania, especially because of its limited administrative capabilities. The borders with Mali in particular have been porous, enabling armed groups and traffickers to carry out their activities across large swaths of land between Mali, Mauritania and Algeria.

35 See http://fr.alakhbar.info/6616-0-MANIFESTE-Pour-les-droits-des-Haratines-au-sein-dune-Mauritanie-un-ie.html (accessed 09/02/2014).

Proximate and conflict sustaining causes of conflict and insecurity

A history of praetorianism: Mauritania’s experience of praetorianism for more than 30 years has been a major source of insecurity. Mauritania experienced a single party regime, and then military regimes that surpassed even the heavily decried mismanagement and repressive policies of the civilian regime. Since 1978, Mauritania has been governed by a succession of repressive military regimes, with the exception of 17 months (April 2007-August 2008) of a democratic regime, after arguably the only truly free and fair elections in the 54 year-history of the country. 36

Deliberate economic mismanagement: Despite the notable 5 per cent GDP growth, on average, in recent years, paradoxically, Mauritania kept a dangerously high unemployment rate of 30 per cent in 2008, a 10 per cent increase from 2004.

Despite a notable increase in the economic activities and in the GDP per capita, poverty has increased due to widespread corruption, official falsification of economic data, and sharp increases in inter-group inequality.³⁷ All this has contributed to inter-group tensions and insecurity.

Terrorist activities: The civil war in Algeria and its aftermath (in the form of terrorism) directly affected security in Mauritania. Mauritania has suffered a succession of armed attacks by armed terrorist groups. In April 2005, the Algerian terrorist group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which later became AQIM, attacked Lemgheity, an isolated army outpost in northern Mauritania, killing 15 and seizing military equipment. Several other attacks followed, including the 2010 attack on the presidential palace and a daylight shoot-out between a terrorist cell and the security forces in Nouakchott.³⁸