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Mauritania: Countries
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Mauritania has been classified in the first position among the 10 African countries which recorded the best economic performances in 2006, according to "developments in the socioeconomic situation in Africa," a document published by the UN Economic Commission. This document highlights economic stability, appreciation of the value of the national currency, as well as investments in the new sectors of hydrocarbons, mineral exploration, tourism and fishing as factors. The nine other countries which recorded the best economic results in 2006 are Angola, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Liberia, DRC, Congo, and Malawi. [Xinhua 01/04/07]
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From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century European contact with Mauritania was dominated by the trade for gum arabic (see Glossary). Rivalries among European powers enabled the Arab-Berber population the Maures (Moors) to maintain their independence and later to exact annual payments from France whose sovereignty over the Senegal River and the Mauritanian coast was recognized by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Although penetration beyond the coast and the Senegal River began in earnest under Louis Faidherbe governor of Senegal in the mid1800s European conquest or "pacification" of the entire country did not begin until 1900. Because extensive European contact began so late in the country's history the traditional social structure carried over into modern times with little change.
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Mauritania's economy is sharply divided between a traditional agricultural sector and a modern mining industry that was developed in the 1960s. About half of the country's workers depend on either raising crops or pasturing livestock for their livelihood and are unaffected by the mining industry. The principal agricultural products, produced chiefly near the Senegal River and in scattered oases, are dates, millet, sorghum, rice, and corn. In times of drought food production levels can drop dangerously low. Cattle, sheep, goats, and camels are raised. There is an important fishing industry based in the Atlantic and on the Senegal River.
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Part of French West Africa until independence in 1960, Mauritania is influenced by Arab as well as African cultures. Crop growing is largely confined to the floodplain of the Sénégal River, straining relations with the country of Senegal over use of the river. Some of the world's richest fishing grounds lie off the coast. The population still largely depends on agriculture and livestock for their livelihood, even though recurring droughts forced most nomads and many subsistence farmers into the cities. The country has been further strained by internal racial divisions between blacks and Arabs.
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Mauritania is generally flat, its 1,030,700 square kilometers (397,850 sq mi) forming vast, arid plains broken by occasional ridges and clifflike outcroppings. A series of scarps face southwest, longitudinally bisecting these plains in the center of the country. The scarps ... separate a series of sandstone plateaus, the highest of which is the Adrar Plateau, reaching an elevation of 500 meters (1,640 ft). Spring-fed oases lie at the foot of some of the scarps. Isolated peaks, often rich in minerals, rise above the plateaus; the smaller peaks are called guelbs and the larger ones kedias. The concentric Guelb er Richat (also known as the Richat Structure) is a prominent feature of the north-central region.
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Mauritania is a primarily desert country in northwest Africa, situated south of the Western Sahara, southwest of Algeria, west and north of Mali, and north of Senegal. The country's western border is the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Mauritania is Noakchott. A country of 2.5 million people, Mauritania's population is composed of Arab Berbers in the north and darker-skinned Africans in the south. Many of the people are nomads. The language groups in the country include Arabic (the official language), French, and local languages.
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