In October 2001, Mauritania held its third legislative and fifth municipal elections since the establishment of multi-party politics under the 1991 constitution.

On November 14 of the same year, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania announced a tripartite agreement for an interim administration under which Spain agreed to share administrative authority with Morocco and Mauritania, leaving aside the question of sovereignty.

At the same time, Senegal and Mauritania have cooperated successfully with Mali under the Senegal River Development Office ( Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal — OMVS ), which was formed in 1972 as a flood control, irrigation, and agricultural development project.

Persecution again raged for a short time under the proconsul Scapula in 211, especially in Numidia and Mauritania.

Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario guerrillas and his formal Army, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979, with Morocco moving to annex that sector shortly thereafter and has since asserted administrative control over the majority of the territory.

* Mauritania had two High commissioners, after having been a protectorate since 12 May 1903 ( under a single military Commandant ), from 18 October 1904 the French civil territory of Mauritania under a Commissioner ( part of French West Africa ( AOF ); under its Governor-general in Dakar, Senegal ), and since 12 January 1920 a French colony under a Lieutenant governor ( many incumbents, again under Dakar ), on 28 November 1958 obtaining autonomy ( as Islamic Republic of Mauritania ):

* Mauritania: Adrar emirate since 1886 under Spanish protectorate till 9 January 1909, then a French protectorate.

Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj ; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al -' Ain, United Arab Emirates ; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi ; Hamad al-Wali ; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

The AOF subsequently expanded to neighbouring French-ruled territories: Dahomey was added in 1904, after having been put under colonial tutelage in 1892 ; Mauritania in 1920, and when the territory of Upper Volta was divided from French Sudan by colonial decree in 1921, it automatically also entered the AOF.

From its capital in Kumbi Saleh on the edge of the desert, the empire expanded throughout southeastern Mauritania, southwestern Mali, and northern Senegal.

Mauritania, lying next to the Atlantic coast at the western edge of the desert, received and assimilated into its complex society many waves of these migrants and conquerors.

Nevertheless, when Mauritania declared its independence on 28 November 1960, its level of political as well as economic development was, at best, embryonic.

Morocco eventually sent a large portion of its combat forces into Western Sahara to confront the Polisario ’ s forces, which were relatively small but well-equipped, highly mobile, and resourceful, using Algerian bases for quick strikes against targets deep inside Morocco and Mauritania as well as for operations in Western Sahara.

In August 1979, after suffering military losses, Mauritania renounced its claim to Western Sahara and signed a peace treaty with the Polisario.

Through the agreement with Mauritania, Morocco sought to tighten its control over the Western Sahara by denying the Polisario one more avenue for infiltrating guerrillas into the disputed territory.

The visiting mission returned its report on October 15, announcing " an overwhelming consensus " in favor of independence ( as opposed to integration with Morocco or with Mauritania, or continued rule by Spain ).

Neither Morocco nor Mauritania accepted this, and on October 31, 1975, Morocco sent its army into Western Sahara to attack Polisario positions.

Mauritania in its turn renamed the southern parts of Río de Oro as Tiris al-Gharbiyya, but proved unable to maintain control over the territory.

Polisario made the weak Mauritanian army its main target, and after a bold raid on the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott ( where a gunshot killed El-Ouali, the first president of the SADR ), Mauritania succumbed to internal unrest.

In 1958, Mauritania was formed as an autonomous republic in the French Community, and in 1960 it became an independent country, with Nouakchott as its capital.

The airline Mauritania Airways has its head office in the city.

Mauritania, a country in the western region of the continent of Africa, is generally flat, its 1, 030, 700 square kilometres forming vast, arid plains broken by occasional ridges and clifflike outcroppings.

After Spain announced its intention to abandon the territory in 1975, the united front presented by the Maghreb nations quickly disintegrated, as a result of Morocco, and subsequently Mauritania, staking claims to the territory.

Little public information exists, and it must be inferred from behind the scenes meetings between Mauritania and Israel in 1995 and 1996m said to be at the instigation of Mauritania's President Ould Taya ; the establishment of unofficial " interest sections " in the respective Spanish embassies in 1996 in the two capital cities, leading to ; the exchange of diplomatic representatives in each other's countries from 27 October 1999 ; that Mauritania had reversed its declaration by then.

Zenaga was once spoken throughout much of Mauritania, but fell into decline when its speakers were defeated by the Maqil Arabs in the Char Bouba war of the seventeenth century.

Mauritania withdrew all its forces and would later proceed to formally recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, causing a massive rupture in relations with Morocco.

President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally helped to the post by the French, rapidly reformed Mauritania into an authoritarian one-party state in 1964, with his new constitution.

After independence, President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally installed by the French, formalized Mauritania into a one-party state in 1964 with a new constitution, which set up an authoritarian presidential regime.

Israel's recognition by the Islamic Republic of Mauritania was maintained by the new regime.

In 1943 and 1944, stamps of Senegal and Mauritania were overprinted with new values and valid throughout French West Africa.

The government of Mauritania has now established a new airline, Mauritania Airways, in conjunction with Royal Air Maroc and a local company.

2004: Inauguration of a new kitchen in Mauritania

** Heads of government of Mauritania

With the CMSN's leader reluctant to break with France and Mauritania, the country refused to give in to Polisario demands for a troop retreat, and Ould Salek's careless handling of the ethnic issue ( massively discriminating against Black Africans in nominating for government posts ) contributed to further unrest.

But at the same time, Morocco and Mauritania began to put pressure on the Franco government: both countries argued that Spanish Sahara formed a historical part of their own territories.

In 1978 the army seized control of the Mauritanian government and Polisario declared a cease-fire, on the assumption that Mauritania would withdraw unconditionally.

In 2009, the government of Mauritania announced that it would begin a process of clearing the slum on the outskirts of Nouakchott.

Now, institutional slavery has been banned worldwide, but there are numerous reports of women sex slaves in areas without effective government control, such as Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Congo, Niger and Mauritania.

Mauritania also attempts to avoid involvement and to balance between Morocco and POLISARIO's backers in Algeria, although it formally recognizes the SADR as Western Sahara's government since 1984 and has a substantial Sahrawi refugee population ( around 30, 000 ) on its territory.

The " Cercle Commander " (" commandant de cercle ") was subject to the authority of a District Commander, and the government of the colony above him, but was independent of the Military structure ( outside of Military areas, e. g.: modern Niger and Mauritania prior to the Second World War ).

In 2005, a UNICEF-sponsored programme with the UAE government resulted in the repatriation of hundreds of children formerly enslaved as camel jockeys, and provided them with social services and compensation upon return to their home countries of Pakistan, Sudan, Mauritania, and Bangladesh.

It raises awareness of contemporary slavery, particularly among the chattel slaves of Mauritania and Sudan, raises funds to support relief and aid to enslaved populations and escaped former slaves, and lobbies government officials to forward their efforts.

The same kind of ruling was issued with regard to Mauritania, where the court found that there were indeed strong tribal and cultural links between the Sahrawis and Mauritanian populations, including historical allegiance to some Moorish emirates, but that these were not ties of a state or government character, and did not constitute formal bonds of sovereignty.

While some of this worry was speculation on the part of the Dakar government, Senegal would later ( towards the end of the Senegambia Confederation ) have border skirmishes with Mauritania.

After Moroccan independence in 1956 and the death of King Mohammed V, the government of King Hassan II laid claim on several territories, successfully ( re ) acquiring the Tarfaya Strip, after the Ifni War with Spain, and much of the territory around Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the acquisition of much of Spanish Sahara after Spain handed the territory to Morocco and Mauritania ( see the Madrid Accords, it is still currently under dispute with the Polisario front who claim it as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

: This declaration was signed by the president of the government Carlos Arias Navarro, for Spain ; the Prime Minister, Ahmed Osman, for Morocco ; and the Foreign Minister, Hamdi Ould Mouknass, for Mauritania.

He served as the transitional military leader of Mauritania following a coup d ' état in August 2005 until 19 April 2007, when he relinquished power to an elected government.

In this capacity, he presided over the government ’ s delegation to the Fourth Consultative Group for Mauritania, held in Paris in December 2001.

On 3 August 2005, the government in Mauritania was overthrown by a coup led by Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Val.

In January 2006 his government cancelled the oil production agreements with the Australian company Woodside, claiming that the said agreements were illegitimate and damaging to Mauritania ’ s interests.

# REDIRECT List of heads of government of Mauritania

# REDIRECT List of heads of government of Mauritania