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. Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA siezed power in a coup in 1984. 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. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed President TAYA and ushered in a military council headed by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed VALL, which declared it would remain in power for up to two years while it created conditions for genuine democratic institutions. For now, however, Mauritania remains, a one-party state. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between its black population and the Maur (Arab-Berber) populace.
March 11th 2008Africa » Mauritania » Trarza » Nouakchott We arrived at the train station early (a small building beside the tracks constitutes the station), to be sure we wouldn't miss the train as we did not know exactly when it left. Our group of four gr ... 12 photos[full story]
March 5th 2008Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou We left our hotel in Dakhla, Morocco in a hired car at 7:00 am. We stopped just outside of town to pick up 2 more passengers (thankfully not 4 more! we still haven't recovered from that ride!). Betw ... 4 photos[full story]
December 18th 2007Africa » Mauritania First stop in West Africa and a good place to warm-up before heading south. Vast empty and amazing landscape. ... 23 photos[full story]
December 8th 2007Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou The Moroccan side of the border took us just over 3 hours to get through, lot of bureaucracy we got stopped no less than 3 times within the frontier, police stop, army stop etc. Then after we are thro ... 27 photos[full story]
December 3rd 2007Africa » Mauritania Well, after a good few days bush camping (i.e. just camping in the woods or by a huge sand dune etc) we have arrived in Mauritania.
Everyone was glad to see a shower as the rolling about on a hyge ... [full story]
November 30th 2007Africa » Mauritania » Adrar Hey Everyone,
I think it’s being about a month or so since I updated my blog. Don’t know if anyone even reads these but I thought that I would still write on the chance that people ... [full story]
November 24th 2007Africa » Mauritania » Trarza Faced with four and a half hours of free time on a Saturday afternoon in Saint Louis, what else were we going to do but walk to Mauritania? Our guidebook had a little map with an arrow saying "Maurita ... 7 photos[full story]
September 23rd 2007Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou When I got to the station there was still plenty of time before the train left. A man drinking tea in the shade had told me it was twenty past three and the train didn’t go till six o’cloc ... 9 photos[full story]
October 20th 2007Africa » Mauritania » Adrar » Chinguetti After a night in Nouakchott to shower and catch up on food shopping we ventured away from the coast inland to the old trading city of Chinguetti. Once a major player in Mauritania, it is still consid ... 32 photos[full story]
Map of Mauritania
Mauritania's Flag
