Mauritania History - C21

Mauritania History - C21

---

2000        Oct
The government banned the opposition Union of Democratic Forces.
   (SFC, 12/27/00, p.C2)
----------------------------------
2000        Dec
The government arrested opposition leader Ahmed Ould Daddah. He was later released for Iraqi military and financial aid.
   (SFC, 12/27/00, p.C2)
----------------------------------
2000        
Mauritania worked out a deal with the World Bank and the IMF to save some $36 million a year in debt payments.
   (SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A12)
----------------------------------
2000        
Mauritania launched a radio and television campaign to end gavage, the practice of force-feeding girls to make them gain weight as a sign of health and fertility. Illiteracy made progress slow.
   (WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A1)
----------------------------------
1-9-2002    
Mauritania appealed for international aid, saying lack of rain was causing a food crisis that has put at risk nearly 1 million people and half of the desert nation's cattle.
   (AP)
----------------------------------
7-11-2002  
Amnesty International and other rights groups charged that slavery by north African Arabs and Berbers and others persists in the West African nation of Mauritania, two decades after its official abolition.
   (AP)
----------------------------------

===========

28-1-2003
Mauritania, an Arab-dominated West African nation, banned anti-U.S. protests and deployed hundreds of security forces in the capital to enforce the prohibition.
(AP, 1/29/03)
----------------------------------
9-6-2003
In Mauritania heavy explosions shook Nouakchott, the capital of the Arab-dominated west African nation for a 2nd day as Pres. Maaouya Sid'ahmed Ould Taya, the pro-Western leader, battled a coup attempt. Army officers were reported to be angry over a campaign against Islamic extremists. Pres. Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya said the government had regained control.
(AP, 6/9/03)(WSJ, 6/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A3)(AP, 6/12/03)
----------------------------------
22-10-2003
The Arab-dominated West African nation of Mauritania opened its first real presidential campaign in more than a decade, with the grandson of black African slaves of the Arabs among five opposition candidates competing.
(AP)
----------------------------------
7-11-2003
Arab-dominated Mauritania held a presidential vote hoping to bring the West African nation's 1st change of power without a coup. Pres. Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya won the vote.
(AP, 11/6/03)(AP, 11/9/03)
----------------------------------
9-11-2003
In Mauritania armed security forces arrested Mohamed Ould Khouna Haidalla, the top losing challenger from presidential elections in this Arab-dominated desert nation, detaining him after an overnight standoff at his campaign headquarters.
(AP, 11/9/03)
----------------------------------
7-1-2004
Mauritania armed security force members stopped racers from the famed Paris-Dakar Rally, demanding $65 from each vehicle to pass the border. The 26th Paris-Dakar race crosses 6,920.4-miles, seven countries and the Sahara Desert, ending Jan. 18 outside the Senegalese capital, Dakar
(AP, 1/9/04)
----------------------------------
10-1-2004
A US anti-terror team arrived in Mauritania. The US had received information of threats against American interests in the West African nations of Mauritania and Senegal.
(AP, 1/12/04)
----------------------------------
13-2-2004
It was reported that police in Mauritania had arrested of five suspected members of Afghanistan's Taliban movement.
(AP)
----------------------------------
9-8-2004
Mauritania arrested renegade officers and Islamic extremists to break up what officials said was a brewing coup involving a terror campaign.
(WSJ, 8/10/04, p.A1)
----------------------------------
2004 Aug
Swarms of locusts descended on Mauritania. Hundreds of swarms were also reported in Chad, Gambia, Mali, Niger, and Senegal.
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.43)
----------------------------------
2004
Mauritania was the only country in the world to raise its corporate income tax.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.77)
----------------------------------
2004
US Special Forces began training local troops in Mauritania and Mali under a program called the Pan-Sahel Initiative. The program was renamed the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative and taken over by Marines, who extended the training to Chad and Niger.
(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A8)
----------------------------------
4-6-2005 and 5-6-2005
An overnight border raid by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Mgheiti, a remote Mauritanian army post in the northern desert, sparked a gunbattle that killed 15 Mauritanian troops and nine attackers. Algeria's Salafist Group for Call and Combat claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 6/5/05)(AP, 8/3/05)
----------------------------------
2005 Jun
The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9 north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
----------------------------------
3-8-2005
A group of Mauritanian army officers, including Colonel Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, announced the overthrow of Pres. Maaouiya Ould Taya. The Military Council for Justice and Democracy named Col. Ely Mohammed Vall as temporary leader. Vall installed 17-member ruling junta and a 24-member cabinet of technocrats to govern the country. The junta promised to create true democratic institutions after a 2-year transitional period. A quick return to calm indicated acceptance of Taya's bloodless overthrow. The UN and EU denounced the coup and Washington called for Taya to be restored to power.
(AP, 8/3/05)(AP, 8/5/05)(WSJ, 8/5/05, p.A7)(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A7)(Econ, 8/16/08, p.50)
----------------------------------
2005
The population of Mauritania was about 3 million. The capital is Nouakchott.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A12)
----------------------------------

==============

2006 Feb
Mauritania began pumping oil for export. 40% of its 3 million people lived below the poverty line.
(AP, 4/24/06)
----------------------------------
3-3-2006
till: 5-3-2006
Wooden canoes, carrying West Africans seeking a better life in Europe, foundered off the coast of Mauritania over 3 days leaving at least 45 people dead.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A3)(Reuters, 3/7/06)
----------------------------------
16-3-2006
The PM of Mauritania asked the West for help in sealing his borders as migrants from elsewhere in Africa were overwhelming the country as they set out from there on an often deadly voyage to Europe.
(AP)
----------------------------------
2-4-2006
Mauritanian officials said a boat packed with West Africans trying to reach Europe collided with a fishing vessel, leaving 32 of the migrants missing and believed drowned.
(CP)
----------------------------------
25-6-2006
Mauritanians voted overwhelmingly to limit presidential terms in a referendum aimed at ensuring they get a change of leadership at least once every 10 years.
(AP, 6/26/06)
----------------------------------
2006 Jul
Mauritania netted $700 million from the EU for fishing rights over 6 years. The amount of fish in West African waters has declined by 50% over the past 3 decades.
(WSJ, 1/18/07, p.A13)
----------------------------------
27-8-2006
Mauritania police said the bodies of 15 people found washed ashore on the beaches of Nouakchatt, Mauritania's capital, are believed to be those of African migrants who were trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands by boat. Spain's Interior Ministry said more than 18,300 people have reached the Canary Islands so far this year, the highest total ever.
(AP, 8/27/06)
----------------------------------
2-9-2006
At least eight boats carrying 674 migrants from Mauritania reached the Canary Islands in the space of 24 hours.
(AP, 9/3/06)
----------------------------------
19-11-2006
Mauritanians voted for a national parliament in the first election since a military junta seized control in 2005.
(AP)
----------------------------------
2007 Jan
The film “Bamako,” by Mauritanian-born director Abderrahmane Sissako, opened in West Africa after premiering at the 2006 Cannes film festival. It took its broadest swipe at the "structural adjustment programs" championed by the World Bank and IMF during the world recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
(Reuters, 1/12/07)
----------------------------------
11-3-2007
Voters in Mauritania went to the polls with hopes that whoever wins the first presidential election since a coup two years ago will not plunge the country back into totalitarian rule.
(AP)
----------------------------------
25-3-2007
Citizens of Mauritania went to the polls for the second time this month, choosing between two men vying to usher Mauritania into civilian rule. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi won Mauritania’s first free presidential election.
(AP, 3/25/07)(AP, 3/25/08)
----------------------------------
10-4-2007
The African Union readmitted Mauritania to the pan-African organization from which it was suspended after a coup in 2005.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
16-4-2007
A quarter of the 1.5 million women in Mauritania a barren, dune-enveloped country more than twice the size of Texas, are obese, according to the World Health Organization. That's lower than the 40 percent of American women who the WHO says are obese, but surprisingly high in a country that has not a single fast-food franchise. Obesity is popular across much of the Arab world. Nomadic peoples struggling to survive the harsh desert came to prize fatness as a sign of health.
(AP)
----------------------------------
19-4-2007
President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi took over from a military junta as Mauritania's civilian head of state.
(Reuters, 4/19/07)
----------------------------------
5-5-2007
The 3 million people of Mauritania earned on average about $530 a year.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.62)
----------------------------------
1-6-2007
The government of Mauritania appealed to international donors to help it reverse a food shortage affecting more than 1 million people.
(AP, 6/2/07)
----------------------------------
8-8-2007
Mauritania passed a law promising prison time for people who keep slaves, a monumental step in the northwest African nation's push to eliminate the long-standing practice. The government officially abolished slavery in 1981, but no one has ever been prosecuted for it and no law created a punishment.
(AP, 8/9/07)

----------------------------------
17-8-2007
Saudi King Abdullah ordered two aid packages worth 20 million dollars each be dispatched to Sudan and Mauritania to help the impoverished African countries hit by severe floods.
(AFP)

----------------------------------

6-11-2007
A Mauritanian patrol boat found a drifting boat from Senegal with some 100 people aboard as well as 2 dead bodies. The migrants had spent nearly 3 weeks at sea and thrown 43 dead bodies overboard.
(SFC, 7-11-2007, p.A3)
----------------------------------
17-11-2007
Mauritanian President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi met Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi at the start of visit to Tripoli aimed at boosting relations after years of tension.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
24-12-2007
Gunmen shot dead four French tourists in Mauritania in West Africa. Sidi Ould Sidna, was charged with planning and executing the killings of the French tourists. He was extradited by Guinea-Bissau in January but later escaped from authorities. 2 other suspected terrorists were arrested on April 30. In May, 2010, a court sentenced 3 young men to death for the murder of the French tourists. The men pleaded not guilty and said their confessions were extracted under torture.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A2)
----------------------------------

==============

4-1-2008
The annual 5,760 Dakar Rally was canceled on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert because of terror threats and the recent Christmas Eve killings of a French family in Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The race, organized by the France-based Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
----------------------------------
1-2-2008
In Mauritania at least one gunman opened fire on the Israeli Embassy, setting off a battle with guards that wounded one person. 8 people were soon detained, but all were released for lack of evidence. 2 suspected terrorists were arrested on April 30.
(AP, 2/1/08)(AP, 2/19/08)(AP, 4/30/08)
----------------------------------
6-5-2008
Mauritania’s President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi said in a statement he had named economist Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef (50) as prime minister.
(AP, 5/7/08)
----------------------------------
2008 May
Mauritania’s President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi appointed 12 ministers, some accused of corruption and all of whom had held prominent posts in the government of former President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, who was ousted in the 2005 coup.
(AP, 8/6/08)
----------------------------------
6-8-2008
Army officers in Mauritania, upset with government overtures toward Islamic hard-liners, staged a coup overthrowing the first government to be freely elected in more than 20 years. President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was held at his palace in Nouakchott by presidential guard soldiers, led by Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. Arab-dominated Mauritania, with a population of 3.4 million, has been wracked by more than 10 coups or attempted coups since independence from France in 1960.
(AP, 8/6/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.44)
----------------------------------
9-8-2008
AU spokesman El-Ghassim Wane said the African Union has frozen Mauritania's membership in the wake of a coup in the country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
----------------------------------
11-8-2008
Mauritania's ousted PM Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef defiantly refused to recognize the African country's ruling military junta, after he was freed from house arrest under international pressure.
(AP, 8/12/08)
----------------------------------
14-8-2008
Military leaders in Mauritania named former EU ambassador Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf as prime minister.
(WSJ)
----------------------------------
15-9-2008
In Mauritania suspected al-Qaeda militants killed 12 soldiers. The terror group had promised to avenge the country’s recent coup.
(SFC, 9/16/08, p.A3)
----------------------------------
7-10-2008
In Mauritania police fired tear gas and used batons to beat back union activists demanding the reinstatement of the deposed president.
(AP, 10/8/08)
----------------------------------
13-11-2008
In Mauritania the military junta that ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi released him in response to international pressure.
(AP)
----------------------------------
3-12-2008
An international rights group said the torture of prisoners including al-Qaida suspects has increased under the military junta that rules Mauritania, where security forces routinely abuse detainees with electric shocks, burnings, beatings and sexual violence.
(AP)
----------------------------------
21-12-2008
The deposed president of Mauritania was set free after 4 1/2 months under house arrest and immediately began working to retake power from the junta that overthrew him.
(AP)
----------------------------------
16-1-2009
Mauritania and Qatar suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed at an Arab summit that deepened the divisions between pro-US Arab nations and their rivals in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/17/09)
----------------------------------
29-1-2009
The African Union said the exclusion from its summit of Mauritania and Guinea, which both suffered coups recently, proved the continent had moved on from its checkered past. The summit was scheduled for Feb 1-3 in Ethiopia.
(Reuters)
----------------------------------
6-3-2009
The Israeli foreign ministry said it had closed its embassy after the government of Mauritania asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave.
(AP)
----------------------------------
15-4-2009
In Mauritania Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the leader of a coup that ousted the elected government, gave up power. This freed him to seek the presidency in balloting aimed at returning civilian rule. Senate president Ba Mamadou Mbare was quickly sworn in as interim leader of the desert nation in western Africa.
(AP, 4/15/09)
----------------------------------
28-5-2009
In Senegal UN, African Union, EU and Arab League representatives met with Mauritian political parties in Dakar to discuss upcoming polls and a political stalemate since a coup.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
16-6-2009
The US added six African countries to a blacklist of countries trafficking in people, and put US trading partner Malaysia back on the list. Chad, Eritrea, Niger, Mauritania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe were added to the list in the annual report. Removed from the list were Qatar, Oman, Algeria, and Moldova.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
23-6-2009
In Mauritania gunmen attempted to kidnap Christopher Ervin Leggett (39), an American teacher, then shot and killed him when he tried to resist. Leggett had taught at a center specializing in computer science in El Kasr, a lower-class neighborhood in Nouakchott. Al-Qaida's North Africa branch soon claimed responsibility for the killing. On July 17 police arrested two suspects in the killing. On July 24 a 3rd suspect, Didi Ould Bezeid (26), was arrested in Nouakchott.
(AP, 6/23/09)(AP, 6/25/09)(AP, 7/25/09)
----------------------------------
27-6-2009
In Mauritania more than 10 months after being overthrown in a military coup, President Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi, the country’s first freely elected president, gave up his claim to power and officially resigned.
(AP, 6/27/09)
----------------------------------
30-6-2009
The African Union Executive Council announced it was lifting sanctions against Mauritania despite the coup held there 10 months ago. The sanctions could be enforced again if the presidential election due July 18 aren't considered fair.
(AP, 7/1/09)
----------------------------------
17-7-2009
In Nouakchott, Mauritania, police exchanged fire with suspected Islamic extremists, killing one and wounding another who was wearing explosives wrapped around his body. A 3rd suspect reportedly escaped.
(AP, 7/18/09)
----------------------------------
18-7-2009
Mauritania held post-coup elections. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a former military general who ousted this Islamic nation's first freely elected president, vied with 8 other candidates to become the legitimate ruler.
(AP)
----------------------------------
19-7-2009
In Mauritania Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (b.1956), former head of the junta that toppled the country’s first freely elected leader, won the presidency in a vote his opponents decried as a fraudulent "electoral coup." The final result gave Aziz 52.47% of the vote, enabling him to avoid a runoff. The Constitutional Court declared the result official on July 23, just hours after the head of the election commission resigned over doubts about the ballot.
(AP, 7/19/09)(AP, 7/23/09)
----------------------------------
8-8-2009
In Mauritania a suicide bomber killed himself outside the French Embassy, wounding two embassy guards and a woman in the street. An African branch of Al-Qaida later said the attack was a response to the aggression of "crusaders" including former colonial ruler France, and to Mauritanian leaders against Islam and Muslims.
(AP, 8/8/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
----------------------------------
16-8-2009
The US Peace Corps says it has pulled more than 100 American volunteers out of Mauritania for security reasons. The volunteers left for neighboring Senegal and will not return to Mauritania.
(AP, 8/17/09)
----------------------------------
27-9-2009
In Venezuela Pres. Hugo Chavez proposed that South American and African nations unite to create a cross-continental mining corporation to keep control of their resources. Chavez made diplomatic inroads in Africa at a summit of South American and African leaders where he offered Venezuela's help in oil projects, mining and financial assistance. Venezuela signed agreements to work together on oil projects with South Africa, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan and Cape Verde.
(Reuters, 9/27/09)(AP, 9/28/09)
----------------------------------
29-11-2009
In Mauritania 3 Spanish volunteers were kidnapped by gunmen. Spain's interior minister said the next day that he suspected al-Qaida-linked Islamists were behind the attack. On Dec 2 a Mauritanian official said the 3 aid workers were being taken by their captors to neighboring Mali. Aid worker Alicia Gamez (35) was released on March 10, 2010. Businessmen Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta remained captive. Al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said on March 12 that it had released Gamez because she voluntarily converted to Islam. Pascual and Vilalta were released in August 2010.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AP, 12/2/09)(AP, 3/10/10)(AP, 3/12/10)(Reuters, 8/23/10)
----------------------------------
19-12-2009
In eastern Mauritania an Italian, Sergio Cicala and his wife, Philopene Kabore, were missing and their car was found abandoned, near the border with Mali. On Dec 21 police arrested Abderrahmane Ould Imidou, a man presumed to have kidnapped the two Italians.
(Reuters, 12/19/09)(AP, 12/22/09)
----------------------------------
23-12-2009
The White House said President Obama has removed Madagascar, Guinea and Niger from a list of African countries receiving trade benefits, but reinstated Mauritania. The US froze most aid to Niger and imposed travel bans on some officials in response to President Mamadou Tandja's moves to extend his rule over the impoverished West African nation.
(AFP, 12/23/09)(Reuters, 12/23/09)
----------------------------------

==============

18-1-2010
A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. The leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.
(AP)
----------------------------------
26-2-2010
Sierra Leone and five other west African countries (Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea) signed onto an action plan in Freetown for sustainable mangrove management.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
----------------------------------
21-4-2010
The Algerian Defense Ministry said Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are opening a joint military headquarters in the Algerian city Tamanrasset, in a united effort to combat terrorism and kidnapping in northwestern Africa. The Committee of Joint Chiefs (CEMOC) was based in Tamanrasset.
(AP, 4/21/10)(AP, 12/20/11)
----------------------------------
13-5-2010
The UN General Assembly approved all 14 candidates for the 14 seats on the 47-member Human Rights Council. Human rights groups criticized the poor human rights records 7 of the candidates: Angola, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Qatar, Thailand and Uganda.
(SFC, 5/14/10, p.A2)
----------------------------------
2010 May
A Mauritanian court sentenced Ould Haiba and two other men, who all claimed to be members of an al-Qaida offshoot, to death for the 2007 murder of four French tourists who were picnicking on the side of a highway in eastern Mauritania on Christmas Eve. Maarouf Ould Haiba died on May 12, 2014, after being on a hunger strike for some time.
(AP, 5/13/14)
----------------------------------
23-6-2010
British-based risk consultancy Maplecroft said African nations led by Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan have the most precarious water supplies in the world.
(Reuters)
----------------------------------
22-7-2010
France and Mauritania carried out a military operation against al Qaeda's North African wing, believed to be holding Michel Germaneau, a 78-year-old French hostage in the desert Sahel region.
(Reuters, 7/23/10)
----------------------------------
24-7-2010
French-backed Mauritanian military operations against al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara desert wound up after four days of hunting Islamists deep inside Mali.
(AP)
----------------------------------
23-8-2010
Two Spanish aid workers held by al Qaeda's North African wing were freed in Mali, ending a kidnapping that lasted nearly nine months, the longest period of captivity in the Sahara desert. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it seized Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual while they were traveling through Mauritania with a relief aid convoy last November.
(AP)
----------------------------------
17-9-2010
The Mauritanian army launched an offensive against the North African branch of al-Qaida in neighboring Mali. At least 12 militants died and five Mauritanians were killed in the operation, which was launched inside northern Mali with permission.
(AP, 9/18/10)
----------------------------------
30-9-2010
Algerian daily Al-Watan said spy chiefs from four north African countries (Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger) have set up a center for joint operations against Al Qaeda in the Sahel region during a meeting in Algiers.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
13-10-2010
Kuwait gave 28 million euros to Mauritania during Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah's whistle-stop visit to the poor northwest African nation.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
19-10-2010
The UN said that 377 people had died in flooding in central and west Africa, with nearly 1.5 million people affected since the start of the rainy season in June. The highest toll was in Nigeria with 118, followed by Ghana (52), Sudan (50), Benin (43), Chad (24), Mauritania (21), Burkina Faso (16), Cameroon (13), Gambia (12), with other countries reporting less than 10 dead.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
20-10-2010
A court in Mauritania condemned three alleged al-Qaida members to death, including the former leader of the African nation's local terrorist network. Former al-Qaida leader, El Khadim Ould Semene, was accused of helping organize an attack on the Israeli embassy here two years ago.
(AP)
----------------------------------
16-1-2011
A Mauritania court sentenced three women for keeping children in slave-like conditions. The women included the mothers of the two girls, 10 and 14, and were convicted of negligence and of participating in the exploitation of minors for selling their children. Each woman was given six months' imprisonment. Mauritania outlawed slavery in 2007.
(AP)
----------------------------------
17-1-2011
Two men set themselves on fire in Egypt and Mauritania, raising to three the number of self-immolation attempts apparently influenced by a similar action in Tunisia that helped trigger a popular uprising. In Cairo Abdou Abdel-Monaam Hamadah (48) was taken to the hospital with light burns. In Nouakchott Yacoub Ould Dahoud (43) torched himself in his car and was rushed to a hospital.
(AP, 1/17/11)
----------------------------------
25-4-2011
Mauritanian police arrested 20 people after hundreds demonstrated in the capital against the regime of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
(AP, 4/26/11)
----------------------------------
28-4-2011
A Mauritania fishing boat shipwrecked off the coast leaving 12 sailors missing.
(AP, 4/30/11)
----------------------------------
24-6-2011
In northeast Mali a raid by the Mauritanian army on an Al-Qaeda base left 17 dead, including two soldiers.
(AFP, 6/27/11)
----------------------------------
26-6-2011
Mauritanian aircraft struck an Al-Qaeda base in northeast Mali. 9 suspected Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) fighters were arrested by the Malian army.
(AFP, 6/28/11)
----------------------------------
5-7-2011
In Mauritania al-Qaida militants attacked a military base in the town of Bassiknou and then fled towards Mali. On July 7 the army said 6 militants were killed with no casualties on the Mauritanian side. The militants said that they had killed 20 soldiers in an ambush late last month in the Wagadou region of Mali. Mauritanian officials said 15 militants and two soldiers were killed.
(AP, 7/6/11)(AP, 7/7/11)
----------------------------------
28-7-2011
Dozens of ethnic black Mauritanians rallied to denounce a census they feel aims at depriving them of their citizenship in a country riven by ethnic and racial strife.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
19-9-2011
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called for closer ties with China during a visit to the Chinese-Arab economic and trade forum in Yinchuan. Both countries signed an agreement granting the Mauritanian armed forces financial support worth 20 million yuan (2.3 millions euros, 3.1 million dollars).
(AFP)
----------------------------------
24-9-2011
Hundreds of black Mauritanians rallied against a census they see as racist, in protests that turned violent in some cities, and several arrests were made.
(AFP, 9/25/11)
----------------------------------
30-9-2011
A Mauritanian official said that police have arrested 56 people following violent clashes over a population census.
(AP)
----------------------------------


13-10-2011
Air traffic between Senegal and Mauritania resumed after a three-month pause, ending a row over onward flights.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
20-10-2011
Mauritania's army conducted an air raid to prevent a planned attack by al-Qaida-linked insurgents in a forest just across the border in Mali, where the group has a cell. Ali Ould Sidi Tiyib, a leader for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, was later reported killed in the raid. He was wanted for his role in an attack against the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania in 2008.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
----------------------------------
18-11-2011
The European Commission said an extra 10 million euros ($13.5 million) in humanitarian funding will go on addressing "major shortfalls" in food in the Sahel region. The crisis is affecting 7 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
----------------------------------
21-11-2011
In Mali army chiefs from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, met in Bamako amid mounting concerns over the fallout from Libya's conflict on security in the troubled zone.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
23-11-2011
Mauritania arrested 10 men on suspicion of ties with armed Islamic extremists. They were charged a month later. On July 2, 2012, the Nouakchott criminal court convicted two of the men of attempting to form a terrorist group, while acquitting eight others.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
----------------------------------
5-12-2011
Mauritanian police said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on October 23.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
8-12-2011
The UN's World Food Program said meager rains and diminished harvests have left between five and seven million people in Africa's Sahel region facing food shortages. The countries of Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Chad were worst hit.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
----------------------------------
13-12-2011
Algeria and Mauritania's leaders vowed to beef up security in the Sahel region, where Islamist militants, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), were holding a dozen Western hostages.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
19-12-2011
Mauritania said it has signed an agreement with French oil group Total to explore for oil at sea and to extract any oil discovered.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
20-12-2011
Mauritanian paramilitary police officer "Ely Ould Moktar was kidnapped from his unit in Adel Begrou. On March 10 he was freed in exchange for Abderrahmane Ould Meddou of Mali, who was serving a 5-year jail sentence for involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple earlier this year.
(AFP, 3/10/12)
----------------------------------
28-12-2011
Mauritania issued an international warrant for the arrest of Moustapha Ould Limam Chavi (53), an opponent of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, for supporting terror groups in the Sahel region. Chafi soon announced plans to sue the president for defamation.
(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
----------------------------------

==============

16-1-2012
Al-Qaida's North African branch issued a new video that shows a Mauritanian officer who was recently captured by the terror group during a raid in the country's southeast.
(AP, 1/17/12)
----------------------------------
24-1-2012
In Mauritania representatives from Sahel states and Nigeria vowed to help each other fight terrorism from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Islamist sect Boko Haram, which are said to have ties.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
5-2-2012
Aid officials in Mali said more than 15,000 people including military personnel have fled into neighboring countries since members of the nomadic Tuareg ethnic group launched a new rebellion against the Malian government last month. The ICRC said 10,000 people have crossed into Niger and 5,000 into Mauritania.
(AP)
----------------------------------
9-2-2012
The World Food Program said a food crisis in Mauritania as a result of drought is expected to be three times worse that in 2010, when the Sahel was crippled by food shortages.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
15-2-2012
United Nations and EU aid chiefs called for "urgent" assistance for West Africa's drought-hit Sahel region (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger), saying it needed $725 million (552 million euros) this year.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
16-2-2012
The mediation and security council of the West African regional group ECOWAS approved humanitarian aid of three million dollars for victims of the food crisis and rebel attacks in the Sahel region (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger).
(AFP)
----------------------------------
17-3-2012
Mauritania arrested Abdullah al-Senoussi, Moammar Ghadafi's former intelligence chief, accused of attacking civilians during the uprising in Libya last year and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner. The International Criminal Court, France and Libya all said they want to prosecute al-Senoussi.
(AP)
----------------------------------
21-3-2012
A Libyan spokesman said the Mauritanian government has given their agreement for the extradition of former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi to Libya so he can be judged by a fair process. Mauritania denied the claim.
(AP, 3/21/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
----------------------------------
10-4-2012
UN children's aid organization UNICEF led a cross-agency appeal for funds for the Sahel region (parts of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) where 15 million are suffering from malnutrition.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
22-4-2012
Thousands of young Mauritanian opposition protestors took to the streets of Nouakchott to demand President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a former coup leader, step down.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
23-4-2012
Aid agencies said they are facing a multi-million dollar funding shortage to deal with a food crisis in the Sahel where people are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive. The crisis has so far affected Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
27-4-2012
The UN food agency appealed to oil- and mineral-rich nations to set up a fund to combat the food crisis gripping the Sahel desert region (Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger) and other parts of Africa. The group said it needed $110 million (83 million euros) to combat the crisis in the short term.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
2-5-2012
In Mauritania the opposition began protests calling for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
----------------------------------
9-5-2012
In Mauritania thousands opposition activists staged a march and sit-down protest in Nouakchott, calling for former coup leader Pres. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
----------------------------------
18-5-2012
In Mauritania several people were hurt and arrested as police fired tear gas and beat back protesters demanding that President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz step down in a fresh anti-regime protest.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
25-5-2012
Mauritanian police fired teargas to break up a fresh opposition protest calling for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down, leaving many injured and at least five under arrest.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
31-5-2012
The Geneva-based office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says it now needs $153.7 million for its operations this year, quadrupling its aid appeal for Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
(AP, 5/31/12)
----------------------------------
4-6-2012
A north Malian Arab militia broke away from a meeting of fellow Arabs in Mauritania, declaring they would fight for the independence of Mali's troubled north. Arabs were meeting in Nouakchott to discuss ways to solve a crisis in Mali's north.
(AFP, 6/5/12)
----------------------------------
4-6-2012
In Mauritania workers at Kinross Gold’s Tasiast gold mine initiated an unlawful work stoppage, halting mining and processing activity at the Canadian-owned operation.
(Reuters, 6/6/12)
----------------------------------
12-7-2012
In Mauritania 7 people were killed in the crash of a YAK-12 military plane chartered by a Canadian mining company to transport gold.
(AP)
----------------------------------
26-7-2012
Mauritania and the European Union signed a new fishing accord after months of heated debate to agree on the EU's exact financial contribution.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
2012 Jul
In Mauritania Aaron Yoon, from London in the Canadian province of Ontario, was sentenced a Nouakchott criminal court to two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 5 million ouguiyas ($18,000). Yoon was arrested in late December 2011 as he prepared to join Islamist fighters in northern Mali, together with some young Mauritanians. On July 14, 2013, a Mauritanian appeals court reduced his sentence to 1½ years, meaning he had technically finished serving his sentence.
(Reuters, 4/9/13)(AP, 7/15/13)
----------------------------------
4-8-2012
In Mauritania a 10-party opposition bloc signed a charter rejecting any solution to the country's political crisis that does not involve the departure of Pres. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
6-8-2012
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said he will not resign, despite weeks of protests by the opposition who accuse him of despotism and mismanagement.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
16-8-2012
A Mauritanian man has the throats of his four children to avoid the expense of buying them new clothes for the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid-al-fitr.
(AFP, 8/17/12)
----------------------------------
5-9-2012
Deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's spy chief, Abdullah al-Senoussi, was put under detention in Tripoli after being extradited from Mauritania.
(AP)
----------------------------------
9-9-2012
In Mali 16 preachers from a moderate Muslim sect were killed at a checkpoint in the central town of Diabaly after reportedly being mistaken for Islamic extremists. The preachers, many of whom were Mauritanian, were traveling by road to Bamako to attend a religious conference.
(AP, 9/10/12)
----------------------------------
13-10-2012
Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was lightly wounded by friendly fire after his vehicle was fired upon by the military on the outskirts of the capital, Nouakchott.
(AP)
----------------------------------
2012
Mauritania officially designated slavery as a crime, with those convicted liable to 10 years in prison.
(AFP, 31-12-2013)
----------------------------------
2013 Apr
AnonGhost, a Mauritania based hacker group, launched a cyber attack dubbed OpIsrael that disrupted access to several Israeli government websites, attracting the attention of security experts worldwide.
(Reuters,28-6-13)
----------------------------------
20-5-2013
In Mauritania Sanda Ould Boumana, the Timbuktu-based spokesman for Ansar Dine, was transferred Nouakchott after he turned himself in over the weekend.
(AP)
----------------------------------
2-6-2013
A Mauritanian official said that the US has transferred Younis al-Mauritani, one of its prisoners held in Afghanistan, to Mauritania. He was wanted in Mauritania for alleged involvement in an Islamic extremist attack in June 2005 in which 17 Mauritanian soldiers were killed.
(AP)
----------------------------------
18-11-2013
Mauritanian police crushed a protest by hundreds of youths demanding a boycott of upcoming elections, wounding several.
(AFP, 19-11-13)
----------------------------------
23-11-2013
Mauritanians voted in nationwide elections overshadowed by a widespread boycott of opposition parties, with all eyes on the performance of an Islamist party allowed to take part for the first time.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
21-12-2013
Mauritania held runoff elections. The ruling party secured a majority of seats in round two of the parliamentary election. The decisive victory for the Union of the Republic party assured that President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who came to power in a 2008 coup, will retain complete control of the organs of state.
(AP, 23-12-13)
----------------------------------
30-12-2013
A Mauritania judicial committee, chaired by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, met and decided to create a court to try crimes of slavery.
(AFP, 31-12-13)
----------------------------------
12-1-2014
The leaders of Mali and Mauritania signed an accord to boost military cooperation and information sharing in the battle against "armed groups or terrorists" plaguing the west African neighbors.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
2-2-2014
Mauritania's PM Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf and his cabinet resigned, a move that had been expected after the ruling party scored a sweeping victory in legislative and local elections last year.
(AFP)
----------------------------------
21-6-2014
Mauritanians voted to choose their next president, but with the major opposition parties boycotting, incumbent Mohamed Ould Abdel Azi seemed certain to hold on to power.
(AP)
----------------------------------

13-11-2014
Amnesty International urged Mauritania to end "harassment, intimidation and repression" of anti-slavery activists, following a number of high-profile arrests.
(AFP)
----------------------------------