Wayzata World Factbook 1995/World Factbook - 1995 Edition - Wayzata Technology (1995).iso/mac/text/Build/orig BACKGR/BNOT0073.TXT

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National Trade Data Bank
ITEM ID     : ST BNOTES MAURITAN
DATE        : Oct 28, 1994

AGENCY      : U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PROGRAM     : BACKGROUND NOTES
TITLE       : Background Notes - MAURITANIA

Source key      : ST
Program key     : ST BNOTES
Update sched.   : Occasionally
Data type       : TEXT
End year        : 1992
Date of record  : 19941018
Keywords 3      :
Keywords 3      : | MAURITANIA

BACKGROUND NOTES:  MAURITANIA
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

JULY 1992
Official Name:  Islamic Republic of Mauritania

PROFILE

Geography
Area:  1,085,760 sq. km. (419,212 sq. mi.); slightly larger than
Texas and New Mexico combined.  Cities:  Capital--Nouakchott (pop.
550,000).  Other cities--Nouadhibou (70,000), Kaedi (74,000),
Zouerate (27,000), Kiffa (65,000), Rosso (50,000).  Terrain:
Northern four-fifths barren desert; southern 20% mainly Sahelian
with small scale irrigated and rain-fed agriculture in the Senegal
River basin.  Climate:  Predominantly hot and dry.

People
Nationality:  Noun and adjective--Mauritanian(s).  Population (1990
est.):  2 million.  Annual growth rate:  2.9%.  Ethnic groups:
Arab-Berber, Arab-Berber-Negroid, Negroid.  Religion:  Islam.
Languages:  Arabic (official), Hassaniya Arabic, French, Pular,
Wolof, and Soninke.  Education:  Years compulsory--none.
Attendance--Primary age children enrolled in school.  Student
population enrolled in primary school 79%; secondary school 18%;
university 3%.  Adult literacy rate--17%.  Health:  Infant
mortality rate--125/1,000.  Life expectancy--46 yrs.  Work force
(1988, 483,000):  Agriculture and fisheries--47%.  Services and
commerce--24%.  Industry and transportation--14%.  Government--7%.
Other--8%.

Government
Type:  Islamic Republic of Mauritania.  Independence:  November 28,
1960.  Constitution:  Promulgated 1961, abolished by decree July
10, 1978.  New constitution approved by referendum July 20, 1991.

Branches:  Executive--president (chief of state).  Judicial--a
supreme court and lower courts are subject to control of executive
branch; judicial decisions are rendered mainly on the basis of
shari'a (Islamic law).  Legislative--bicameral national assembly,
elected lower house (79 members), and upper house (56 members)
chosen indirectly by municipal councilors.

Political parties:  Officially 15.  Suffrage:  Universal suffrage
in recent presidential (January 1992) and legislative (March 1992)
elections.

Central government budget (1992 est.):  Revenues--$309 million.
Expenditures--$307 million.

Defense (1990 est.):  4.2% of GDP.

National holiday:  November 28.

Flag:  Yellow star over yellow crescent against green background.

Economy
GDP (1990 est.):  $1 billion.  Annual growth rate (1990 est.):
1.5%.  Per capita income: $520.

Natural resources:  Iron ore, gypsum, fish.

Agriculture (24% of GDP):  Products--livestock, millet, maize,
wheat, dates, rice.

Industry (19% of GDP):  Types--iron mining, fish processing.

Trade (57% of GDP):  Exports--$439 million.  Major markets--Japan
21%; Italy 14%; France 11%; Belgium/Luxembourg 11%; US 3%.
Imports--$391 million: foodstuffs, machinery, tools, cloth,
consumer goods.  Major suppliers--France 38%; Belgium/Luxembourg
8%; Federal Republic of Germany 8%; US 6%; Spain 6%; Algeria 5%.

Official exchange rate:  Floating, currently 80 Ouguiyas (UM)=US
$1.

Fiscal year:  Calendar year.

PEOPLE
Eighty percent of the population are Moors--of Arab-Berber descent
and speaking dialects of Hassaniya Arabic.  Much social status is
determined by derivations from either the region's Arab-Berber
conquerors or the caucasoid-negroid peoples they enslaved.  An
aristocratic-servile status continues to define Maure (Moor)
society as "white" and "black."  White Moor aristocrats (bidan)
tend to be more purely Arab; commoner whites tend to be more
distinctly Berber in appearance and speech.  Traditionally, the
enslaved indigenous class came to be called black Moors.  Even
though slavery is officially proscribed, a servile status lingers
among the lower rungs in the black social structure.  Non-Moor,
non-Arab or Berber-speaking black Africans, including the
Toucouleur, Fulbe, Wolof, Bembara people comprise the remaining 20%
of the population and tend to live in the south.  Most of these
groups also have hierarchical social structures, with a servile
class at the bottom.  Although taken together, black Moors and
black Africans outnumber white Moors, black Moors identify in many
ways with white Moors.  All Mauritanians are Muslims.

As a result of recent endemic drought, large numbers of former
nomads and oasis dwellers have migrated to urban areas (Nouakchott,
Nouadhibou, Kaedi, Rosso), swelling the population of the cities
and surrounding shanty towns.

HISTORY
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Sahara regions were verdant and
filled with game.  Archeological evidence suggests that caucasoid
Berber and negroid Mauritanians lived beside one another before the
spread of the desert drove them southward.  Migration increased in
the third and fourth centuries AD, when Berber groups arrived,
seeking pasture for their herds, and safety from war in the north.
The use of the camel allowed Berbers to travel widely across the
expanding desert.  This mobility led to the development of a
caravan trade system which promoted the Berbers' loose Sanhadja
confederation.  Gold, slaves, and ivory going north were traded for
salt, copper, cloth, and other items going south to Timbuktu (in
present-day Mali) and beyond.  Important trading towns were
established, and Islam spread along the trade routes.

In the 10th century, conquests by warriors of the Sudanese Kingdom
of Ghana broke up the confederation, which had become weakened by
internal strife, and the Ghanaians became the dominant force in the
eastern and southern regions.

In the 11th century, the conquest of the western Sahara regions by
the Almoravids, a Berber tribe which later spread into North Africa
and Spain, destroyed the Ghanaian Kingdom and firmly established
Islam throughout Mauritania.  These people were defeated by Arab
invaders led by the Beni Hassan in the 16th century.

Descendants of the Arab warriors became the upper stratum of
Moorish society, and Arabic generally displaced Berber dialects as
the language of the country.  Beneath the Hassan tribes, but often
effectively their social equals, were the Marabout tribes, whose
leading figures served as the repositories and teachers of Islamic
tradition.  Some of the more important Marabouts (holy men) founded
religious brotherhoods whose influence extended well beyond their
tribe.  A few of these brotherhoods still have considerable
followings as far as Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and the Maghreb (North
Africa).

French military penetration of Mauritania began early in the 20th
century--the French proclaimed a protectorate over "the Moorish
country" in 1903 and declared it a colony in 1920--but the area was
not brought fully under French control until about 1934.  Until
independence, the French governed the country largely by relying on
the authority of the tribal chiefs, some of whom, such as the Emirs
of Trarza and Adrar, had considerable authority.

The colony's area was increased substantially in 1945, when the
Hodh region of French Sudan (now Mali) was administratively
transferred to Mauritania.  Certain parts of this territory were
ceded back to Mali in territorial adjustments in 1964.

The colonial period had enormous consequences for relations between
and among Mauritania's various ethnic groups.  Under French
occupation, slavery was legally abolished, and the payment of
tribute was reduced or eliminated.  But Mauritanian society
continued to accept the notion of a servile class even after
independence.  Although slavery was again abolished in 1980, the
social status and economic situation of freed slaves has improved
very little, if at all.  The legacy of slavery continues to be
manifest in the legal system and other institutions.  For example,
land and inheritance disputes between Haratins and their former
masters are still common.  In short, many residual social and
economic problems inherited from the slavery system remain.

The French occupation also led to a return of sedentary negroid
people across the Senegal River into southern Mauritania, an area
from which they had been expelled gradually in earlier years by the
warlike Maure nomads.  To this day, conflict between Moor and
non-Moor ethnic groups, centering on language, land tenure, and
other issues, continues to be the dominant challenge to national
unity.

In 1989, for example, a land dispute between Moors and black
Africans along the Senegal River quickly escalated, and rioting
ensued both in Nouakchott and in Dakar, the capital or Senegal.
Hundreds of people were killed in both countries, and the two
governments expelled tens of thousands of each other's citizens
before breaking diplomatic relations.

As a member of the French West African Federation, Mauritania
participated in the postwar social and political progress of the
French colonies.  Its elected officials gained wide authority early
in 1957 as a result of the Overseas Reform Act (Loi Cadre), and
Mauritania entered the French Community as an autonomous but not
fully sovereign state after the French constitutional referendum in
September 1958.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was proclaimed in November 1958.
Shortly thereafter, the process of transferring Mauritania's
administrative services from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to the new
capital of Nouakchott was begun.  Mauritania became independent in
1960.  It withdrew from the French Community in 1966.

From independence until 1978, Mauritania's first civilian president
was Moktar Ould Daddah, a white Moor lawyer from the Boutilimit
region.  Ould Daddah achieved some international stature as one of
the first generation of leaders of independent African states.  He
emphasized Mauritania's Arab heritage and moved the country toward
a nonaligned stance in international affairs.  In 1973, foreign
interests (primarily French) in Mauritania's iron mining industry
were nationalized, and Mauritania withdrew from the franc zone to
create its own currency, the Ouguiya (non-convertible outside the
country).  Ould Daddah's single-party regime fell from power in
July 1978 as a result of Mauritania's military setbacks in the
Western Sahara conflict.

The bloodless coup that ended the Ould Daddah regime ushered in a
succession of military governments.  Mauritania's constitution was
suspended, and the National Assembly and Daddah's party were
dissolved.  After several "palace coups" in 1979, a military
committee under Lt. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla was
established.  As drought and economic problems mounted in the early
1980s, the military regime became increasingly ineffectual,
repressive, and corrupt.  Haidalla's policy of friendship with the
Polisario guerrillas, culminating in official Mauritanian
recognition of the Saharan Democratic Arab Republic in early 1984,
also elicited strong opposition.

On December 12, 1984, Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Maayouia Ould
Sid'Ahmed Taya ousted Haidalla in a bloodless coup.  Taya's first
actions as President raised the hopes of many Mauritanians.  He
moved to a neutral position on the Western Sahara conflict,
inaugurated elections for municipal councils, and normalized
relations with Morocco.  But ethnic tensions were becoming more
pronounced; in the second half of 1986, for example, the regime
dealt harshly with Toucouleur dissidents, sentencing about 35 to
long prison terms.  Nor did the Taya regime restrict its human
rights abuses to the black community; in 1988 it imprisoned and
tortured Maure supporters of the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath party.

The bloody events of 1989 along the Senegal River, the subsequent
breaking of relations between Mauritania and Senegal, and the mass
killings and deportations of tens of thousands of black Africans
symbolized an ethnic crisis that was out of control.  Furthermore,
black Africans objected to what they perceived as a growing
"Arabization" of the country.  Their fears were exacerbated by the
Taya's regime close relations with Iraq prior to and during the
Gulf war, and by the military's involvement in significant human
rights abuses against the black community.  The Moors, for their
part, expressed fears that black Africans  had become too radical
and were about to launch a civil war against them.

Faced with internal crisis and a cut-off of military and
development assistance from abroad, in the spring of 1991, Taya
implemented some democratic reforms, including the legalization of
political parties and a free press.  He announced that presidential
and legislative elections would follow, culminating in a transition
to civilian rule in the spring of 1992.

A new constitution was adopted in a controversial referendum in
July 1991.  The opposition parties disputed the government's claims
that 85% of the population went to the polls and that 96% of those
voting favored adoption of the document.  The parties also demanded
that Taya step down in favor of a neutral transition government.
He did not and was elected President by a wide margin in January
1992.  Charging that the administration had manipulated the vote,
the opposition denounced the results and boycotted legislative and
senate elections.

On April 18, 1992, the Mauritanian Second Republic was declared,
and the ruling military committee was disbanded.  The civilian
regime took office, despite lack of participation by opposition
parties in the parliament.  That same month, diplomatic relations
were formally restored with Senegal, but questions remained as to
the fate of tens of thousands of Mauritanian refugees still living
in camps on the Senegalese side of the river.  Other outstanding
issues between the two countries included the resolution of land
and property claims.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
From July 1978 to April 1992, Mauritania was governed by a military
junta.  The ruling group was composed of military officers holding
ministerial portfolios or important positions in the defense
establishment.  The chairman of the committee was also chief of
state.  In early 1992, however, the government converted to
civilian rule, and the military committee was disbanded.
Nevertheless, because Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was the same
person who had headed the military regime since 1984, the
likelihood of pro-military bias in government policy remained
great.

Politics in Mauritania has always been heavily influenced by
personalities.  Furthermore, the degree to which an individual is
able to exercise political power depends upon control over
resources, perceived ability or integrity, and tribal, ethnic,
family, and personal considerations.  Therefore, it is likely that
during the civilian transition now under way the chief of state,
though very powerful, will continue to be subject to tribal and
ethnic pressures.

The governmental bureaucracy is composed of traditional ministries,
special agencies, and parastatal companies.  Civilians hold most
economic and technical portfolios.  The Ministry of Interior
controls a system of regional governors and prefects modeled on the
French system of local administration. Under this system,
Mauritania is divided into 13 regions (wilayas) and one district
(Nouakchott).  Control is tightly centralized in Nouakchott.
Whether recent elections at the local and national level will have
a decentralizing effect on the bureaucracy remains to be seen.

Political parties, illegal during the military period, were
legalized again in 1991.   By April 1992, when the civilian
transition occurred, 15 political parties had been recognized.
Their adherents espoused various brands of Arab nationalism,
Islamic fundamentalism, and Marxism.  However, because most
opposition parties boycotted the legislative and senatorial
elections, the parliament is dominated by one party, President
Taya's PRDS (Parti Republicain et Democratique Social).

The ethnic conflict that has troubled Mauritania in the late 1980s
and early 1990s has spilled over into political party activity, and
parties tend to reflect the country's social divisions:  most of
the country's black African citizens support opposition parties,
and the pro-government parties are distinguished by their lack of
broad-based support in the black African communities.

Principal Government Officials
President--Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya
Prime Minister--Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation--Mohamed Abderrahmane
Ould Moine
Ambassador to the United Nations--Mohamed Ould Mohamed Mahmoud
Ambassador to the United States--Mohamed Fall Ainina


Mauritania maintains an embassy in the United States at 2129 Leroy
Place NW, Washington, DC  20008 (tel. [phone]).

ECONOMY
Mauritania has a dual economy, with little interaction between the
modern and traditional production sectors.  Most of Mauritania's
inhabitants, either nomadic herders or settled farmers, live within
a subsistence economy, supplementing their incomes occasionally as
wage earners or by selling produce in local markets.  Most settled
agriculture is confined to the north bank of the Senegal River,
where millet, sorghum, rice, and other cereals are the  main crops.
Dates are produced annually from the date palms cultivated in the
mountainous regions of Adrar, Tagant, and Assaba and at the larger
oases.  Almost all produce is consumed locally.

Livestock raising has traditionally generated about 24% of the GDP
and involved nearly one-third of the total working population.
However, since 1983, livestock has been decimated by drought.
Estimates of total herds for 1990 are 1.4 million cattle, 8.5
million sheep and goats, and 950,000 camels.  Mauritania's
agricultural sector has also been devastated by a series of
droughts that have left the country heavily dependent on food aid.
Even after relatively abundant rainfall in 1989-90, Mauritania grew
only 37% of its total cereal needs.  The government's development
plans emphasize rural sector growth, but the country will be a
significant food importer for the foreseeable future.  Between 1981
and 1991 the United States provided about 170,000 metric tons (MT)
of food aid, in addition to bilateral and regional economic
assistance.

The waters off Mauritania's coast contain some of the world's
richest fishing grounds.  From 1983 through 1989, exports of fish
products were Mauritania's leading source of foreign revenue
(1990--76% of GDP).  In 1990, an estimated 353,629 MT of fish with
a total value of $20 million were exported.

One of Mauritania's most important natural resources is the
high-grade iron ore near the north-central town of Zouerate.  The
semiautonomous mining company, Societe Nationale Industrielle et
Miniere (SNIM), exploits these deposits.  This high-grade ore is
the country's leading export.

The iron mining industry has emerged in the late 1980s from a
difficult period caused largely by problems associated with the
$500 million Guelbs project, inaugurated in 1984.  The project,
which involved exploitation of large but low-grade deposits, ran
into major technical problems.  After a partial fix in 1989-91, it
will operate at a lower than anticipated level.

In 1991, work began on large new high-grade deposits at M'Haoudat
and a small deposit in the original Kedia group of mines.  Between
1989 and 1991, SNIM returned to profitability, and its outlook has
improved significantly.

Exports of copper concentrates from a mine located at Akjoujt began
in April 1971, but declining world copper prices and technical
difficulties led to the mine's takeover by the government in 1975.
Three years later, the government discontinued exploitation of the
mine.  In the early 1980s, efforts by an Arab consortium to revive
the mine failed.  However, in April 1992, a joint venture with an
Australian company was inaugurated in Akjoujt for reprocessing the
old copper mine debris for gold.  This may eventually lead to a
resumption of copper mining.

A series of developments in the 1970s and 1980s has brought
Mauritania to the edge of financial collapse.  Years of drought
reduced livestock populations and domestic food production, forcing
hundreds of thousands of Mauritanians to forsake traditional
activities and migrate to urban areas.  Participation in the
Western Sahara war from 1975 to 1978 proved a costly debacle.  The
government borrowed heavily to finance questionable projects,
accumulating one of the largest per capita external debt burdens in
Africa.  Declining commodity prices undermined the country's
mineral industry.  These external factors were compounded by
inappropriate macro-economic policies that discouraged exports and
agricultural production, stimulated migration to overcrowded
cities, and encouraged the growth of an inefficient web of
government bureaucracy and parastatal companies.  The economic
crisis was one of the reasons cited for the December 1984 coup.

In the late 1980s, the government worked closely with World Bank
and IMF advisers to pursue structural adjustment policies.
Parastatals have been closed, restructured or privatized,
government spending has been reined in, prices have been
liberalized, and the government has reduced its role in food
imports.  These measures have not been sufficient to alleviate the
financial crisis, however.  The economic situation worsened in 1990
and early 1991, the fish catch declined due to overfishing, and
Mauritania had alienated key Arab donors during the Gulf war.  In
early 1992, the IMF and World Bank negotiated with the government
to define further measures to reform the economy.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Mauritania's interests lie in a peaceful regional environment and
maximum external assistance for its development.  Its mixed
Arab-African heritage calls for close relations with both Arab and
African states and regional organizations.  In order to pursue
these interests, the government attempts to follow a low-profile
policy, adhering to consensus positions in Arab, African, and
nonaligned fora and seeking friendly relations with as many states
in the African and Arab region as possible.  It avoids taking sides
in conflicts within these groups.  Relations with the developed
world are largely a function of the need for security and external
financing.

However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the government was
widely perceived, both within and outside the country, as having
failed in these foreign policy aims.  The country's bloody ethnic
conflict with Senegal, combined with the Taya regime's tacit
acceptance of the Iraq position in the Gulf War, signalled a new
low in Mauritania's external relations, particularly with the West,
Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.  Furthermore, the revelation that
Mauritanian security forces had engaged in widespread human rights
abuses against their own citizens further tarnished the
government's international reputation.  The United States, for
example, suspended all military assistance to Mauritania.  Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait, both of whom had provided large amounts of
assistance in the past, withdrew all aid.

The government's announcement in 1991 that it would undertake
democratic reforms has somewhat improved its standing in the world
community.  France, which for historical and pragmatic reasons
never diminished its level of assistance, is today the largest
donor and provider of military assistance to Mauritania.  Germany,
Spain, Italy, and the European Economic Community are other
important donors.

From the Mauritanian point of view, internal stability depends on
peaceful relations with its three immediate neighbors:  Mali, the
Western Sahara, and Senegal.  In the early 1990s, Mauritania faced
formidable challenges along all three borders.

In 1991, several thousand Tuaregs and Moors fleeing an internal
rebellion in Mali took refuge in southeastern Mauritania.  There
they settled into camps, which were subsequently brought under the
authority of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  By the end of
1991, the UNHCR had registered 18,000 refugees in the camps, and
the figure grew daily.  Although in April 1992, the Mali Government
signed a peace treaty with rebel leaders, it was not clear whether
and when the refugees would be able to return to Mali.  In the
meantime, the Mauritanian Government is responsible for providing
logistical support to the UNHCR relief operation.

The continuing border dispute with Senegal moved toward resolution
in early 1992, but several significant issues remained outstanding.
Even though the Mauritanian Government relaxed its security posture
along the Senegal border and announced that any Mauritanians on the
Senegalese side could return home, only a few thousand appeared to
have done so.  The majority, either facing documentation problems
resulting from their forced deportation or fearing reintegration
problems in their old villages (which in many cases have been
resettled by Moors), were awaiting the normalization of relations
before deciding whether to return.  In April 1992, diplomatic
relations did indeed resume between Mauritania and Senegal, but
complicated compensation and resettlement questions remain.

Mauritania's northern border is adjacent to the Western Sahara, a
territory that has been in dispute for almost 20 years.  The main
parties to the conflict have been Morocco; the Polisario Front, the
armed faction fighting for independence from Morocco; Algeria,
which has provided financing and safe haven for the Polisario
throughout most of the conflict; and Mauritania.

Since 1973, the Polisario has challenged first Spain's and later
Morocco's claim to the territory.  Under the terms of a November
1975 treaty, Mauritania and Morocco joined Spain (the former
colonial power in the Western Sahara) in administering the
territory.  Upon Spain's withdrawal from the Western Sahara in
February 1976, Mauritania and Morocco claimed and administered
their respective zones.  This drew Mauri-tania into Morocco's war
against the Polisario.  The conflict was a military and financial
disaster for Mauritania and the direct cause of the overthrow of
the Daddah Government in 1978.

In August 1979, the Government of Mauritania signed a peace treaty
with the Polisario and relinquished its land claims in the Western
Sahara.  As a result, Mauritania's relationship with Algeria
improved, but those with Morocco became strained.  Until 1984, the
government maintained "strict neutrality" in the conflict.  In
February 1984, however, President Haidalla recognized the Saharan
Arab Democratic Republic, the Polisario's political arm.

President Taya, who came to power in December of that year, took a
more neutral position and ended the covert assistance that Haidalla
had been providing to the guerrillas.  As a result, rapprochement
with Morocco took place, and full diplomatic relations resumed in
1985.

Today, Mauritania's main inter-est in the Western Sahara lies in a
peaceful resolution of the conflict.  The government's stated
policy is to support the framework of the United Nations, which has
proposed a plan for a referendum in which the Sahrawis, the people
who live in the Western Sahara, would decide between integration
with Morocco and independence.  In 1991 a cease-fire went into
effect; however, problems have arisen in determining who will be
eligible to vote in the referendum.  Whether the Western Sahara
problem will be resolved in the near future is far from clear.

DEFENSE
When the country was involved in the war against the Polisario,
Mauri-tania had about 18,000 soldiers under arms, including members
of the national guard, the army, navy, and air force, as well as
the gendarmerie.  Following withdrawal from the conflict, these
forces were somewhat reduced.

As a result of a series of purges of black African officers and
enlisted men in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the armed forces
have been further reduced.  It is estimated that up to 500
Afro-Mauritanian members of the security forces may have been
tortured to death following large-scale arrests that occurred in
1990-91.  The security forces are also accused of having committed
widespread human rights abuses in Afro-Mauritanian communities
along the Senegal River.

Troops are posted primarily in the north--the Nouadhibou
region--and in the south in the Senegal River region along the
Senegalese border.  A fairly large troop contingent is also in
Nouakchott, where the military headquarters is located.  Although
Mauritania's troops are thought capable of only limited defense of
the country, they appear adequate to quell civilian unrest.  The
latest massive deployment of the armed forces occurred in January
1992, during the presidential election period.

US-MAURITANIAN RELATIONS
Before June 7, 1967, the United States maintained cordial relations
with Mauritania and provided a small amount of economic assistance.
However, Mauritania broke diplomatic and consular relations with
the United States during the June 1967 Middle East war.  Relations
were restored 2 years later, and ties were relatively friendly
until the late 1980s, despite disagreement over the Arab-Israeli
issue.

Between 1983 and 1991, when the USAID mission in Mauritania ceased
operations, the United States provided $67.3 million in development
assistance.  During the recent drought emergency, the United States
was the major provider of emergency food assistance through both
bilateral and multilateral channels.  Since 1981, the United States
has provided a total of approximately $100 million in economic and
food assistance.

The 1989 rupture between Mauritania and Senegal that resulted in
the deportation and deaths of tens of thousands of Mauritanian
citizens had a negative impact on US-Mauritania relations.  This
was exacerbated by Mauritania's perceived support of Iraq prior to
and during the Gulf war of 1991.

Relations between the US and Mauritania reached a low in the spring
of 1991, as details of the Mauritanian military's role in
widespread human rights abuses came to light.  The United States
responded by formally suspending all military assistance to
Mauritania.  Since late 1991, the Government of Mauritania has
expressed a desire to restore good relations with the United
States.  It has sought to implement democratic reforms such as the
legalization of political parties and a free press and the holding
of elections.  However, all US military and development assistance
to Mauritania remains on hold pending a judicial resolution of the
human rights situation.

Principal US Officials
Ambassador--Gordon S. Brown Deputy Chief of Mission--David C.
Bennett
Political/Military Officer--Angela R. Dickey
Economic/Consular/Commercial Officer--Andrew Snow
USAID Liaison Officer--David C. Bennett
Peace Corps Director--Mary Pecaut


The address of the US embassy in Mauritania is BP 222, Nouakchott,
Islamic Republic of Mauritania.  Tel. [phone]; Telex
AMEMB 5558-MTN, Fax [phone]. Workweek:  Sunday-Thursday.


TRAVEL NOTES
Climate and clothing:  Conservative summer apparel is worn all
year.  Bring a light coat or sweater for chilly winter evenings.

Customs:  An entry visa is required of all US citizens.  Health
requirements change; check latest information.

Health:  The government-run hospital is staffed by French-speaking
doctors.  There are also a few clinics owned and operated by
foreign physicians.  Health care in the rest of the country is very
restricted, although hospitals exist in several cities and
dispensaries are found in smaller towns.  Within Nouakchott,
sanitary conditions are generally fair, but instances of cholera,
hepatitis, meningitis, and other diseases have been reported;
malaria suppressants are strongly recommended.

Communications:  Radio and telephone service links Nouakchott to
most regional capitals. Radio, telephone and wireless communication
with almost every country of the world is available.  Nouakchott is
5 time zones ahead of eastern standard time.

Published by the United States Department of State -- Bureau of
Public Affairs -- Office of  Public Communication -- Washington, DC
July 1992 -- Editor: Amy Cohen

Department of State Publication 8169
Background Notes Series -- This material is in the public domain
and may  be reprinted without permission; citation of this source
is appreciated.  For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC  20402.