Mauritania: Political System
According to CANCERMATTERS.NET, before the overthrow of the president in August 2005, Mauritania’s form of government was a presidential republic with a constitution based on Islamic law (Sharia). The bicameral parliament consisted of the National Assembly with 81 members elected every five years and the Senate with 56 members elected every six years by local councils, including three representatives of Mauritanians abroad. The direct election of the head of state took place every 6 years. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Mauritania politics, and acronyms as well.
After the coup in 2005, Colonel Vall had both chambers of parliament dissolved and, in addition to his function as chairman of the “Military Council for Justice and Democracy”, has also taken over that of the head of state. He announced that he wanted to advance the country towards democratic reforms and constitutionality. This process should not take longer than two years. Parliamentary elections are to take place during this period.
On August 6, 2008, the military took power in the country under the strong man General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The official name of the country is:
| Islamic Republic of Mauritania |
National anthem
The national anthem of Mauritania was officially introduced in 1960. The text is from a poem by the religious leader Baba Quld Cheikh towards the end of the 19th century. Tolia Nikiprowetzky wrote the melody.
| In the English translation |
| Be a help to God, and punish what is forbidden,And keep to the right that He has over you,
Do not take anyone but Him as important, And walk the path of the chosen one, and die on him! What was enough for the first of us is enough for the last. With respect to God, let people do evil.They misrepresent him by making him look alike and have all kinds of excuses. They made gentle requests and wrote black history. They made the nomads and the settled people have bitter experiences. And the great sins of their new teachings kept small. And if a contender challenges you to dispute their claims, then do not argue about them except in an outward dispute manner. |
National flag
In the center of the national flag is a golden crescent moon lying on an emerald green background, with a golden, five-pointed star above it. There is a red stripe below and above. Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, the colors green, yellow and red are considered to be Pan-African colors. The green and the crescent moon of the flag symbolize Islam, the red stripes the blood of the independence fighters. The national flag of Mauritania was introduced in its current form on August 6, 2017.
- Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Mauritania.
Mauritania: Known People
General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (born 1956)
General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who comes from Akjoujt in Mauritania, was first chairman of the High Council of State (French: Haut Conseil d’État) from 2008 to 2009, and has been chairman since the August 6th military coup 2008 and the subsequent impeachment of President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi the de facto head of state of Mauritania. He resigned from this position on April 15, 2009 and stood again in the presidential election of the same year. He won this too. In a new election in 2014 he was re-elected as president.
Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti (1872-1913)
Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti, one of Mauritania’s most famous writers, wrote as his main work the geographically, literarily and historically oriented compendium Al-Wasit fi tarájim udaba al-Shinqit, das The only major work in Arabic by a Mauritanian writer on Mauritania.
Moktar Ould Daddah (1924-2003)
Moktar Ould Daddah served as President of Mauritania from 1961 to 1978, having been Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Army Commander-in-Chief in the 1960s. Daddah ruled authoritarian, carried out extensive nationalizations, introduced the one-party system and reached an agreement with Morocco on the division of what was until then the Spanish Western Sahara. Daddah was deposed because of the bad economic situation and the Western Sahara conflict.
Med Hondo (born 1936)
A Mauritanian film director and actor, Abib Mohamed Medoun Hondo, came from the Mauritanian Atar. He celebrated his greatest successes in France. His first feature film, Soleil O, shot in 1967, caused a sensation in the country because of its explosive content. With his historical film West Indies (1979), Hondo won the Dakar Festival Prize.
Théodore André Monod (1902-2000)
The well-known marine zoologist and Africa researcher Théodore Monod was director of the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar and professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. In the course of his life, Monod undertook numerous Sahara research trips and explored, among other things, the pre-Islamic rock paintings in the Tagant region and the old trading town of Aoudaghost in southern Mauritania.
Mauritania: animals
Further mammals are African gold wolves, black cats, fenneks, Dorkas gazelles, gazelles, hussar monkeys, hyrax and small-spotted genet cats. You can also find honey badgers, leopards, sand foxes, sand cats, striped and spotted hyenas, western green monkeys or white-naped weasels as well as zorillas (a species of marten). Also worth mentioning are the African dwarf hedgehogs, grass rats and the Mauritanian shrews. A small colony of the threatened Mediterranean monk seal lives near Cap Blanc.
The main domesticated animals in Mauritania are camels, which are known to be able to do without water for a long time. They are used as riding and pack animals, and their milk and meat are popular
National parks
Banc d’Arguin
National Park The Banc d’Arguin National Park is located on the Atlantic coast between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou and covers an area of 12,000 km². It was declared a national park in 1976. Sand dunes and coastal swamp areas can be found in the national park. The island of Arguin in the Atlantic and other smaller islands such as the Kiaone Islands and shallow coastal waters as well as the Arguin sandbank belong to the national park.
The park is one of the most important winter quarters for the whimbrel. In addition, many colony breeders such as greater flamingos, spoonbills, pink pelicans, predatory, king and salmon terns as well as thin-billed gulls breed here. The national park was inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1989.
Diawling National ParkThe Diawling National Park is located in the extreme southwest of Mauritania on the border with Senegal. The park, founded in 1991, covers an area of around 460 km², whereby it can be divided into a peripheral zone of 300 km² with sand dunes and a mangrove belt as well as a wetland of 160 km².It is worth mentioning that the park includes the delta of the Senegal River and during the rainy season consists mainly of larger floodplains. The park is surrounded by 21 villages, while Wolof and Fulbe people live in the area of the national park.
In the park you will find 105 different bird species – including 92 species of waterfowl – as well as flamingos, pelicans and black storks. Particularly noteworthy among the mammals are the populations of primates and warthogs.
Lac d’AlegAnother important habitat for migratory birds in Mauritania is the Lac d’Aleg.Among the birds you can find brown ibis, teal ducks, purple chickens, black-tailed geese and black-tailed godwit. In January the lake has an area of about 25 km² – with a water depth of 1 to 2 m.
At the end of the rainy season in October, the lake covers an area of around 50 km² – at a depth of 3 to 4 m. The local vegetation consists of water spinach, tiger lotus (a kind of chicken millet), sesbania and dog-tooth grass. Among the local trees are the desert date and Capparis decidua
Reptiles
Nile crocodilesThe Nile crocodiles of Mauritania are mostly found on or in Gueltas, where they hide in cool crevices under the earth during the dry season. In doing so, they reduce their metabolism so much that they fall into a kind of rigidity that enables them to survive for months without water and food.Gueltas are a special type of natural watering hole in the Sahara.
TurtlesThe breeding grounds for turtles are particularly sandbanks and the sandy beaches of the islands of Tidra, Niroumi, Nair and Kijji.
Numerous scorpions and snakes live especially in the dunes, including:
African spittingcobra The African spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis) belongs to the genus of real cobras (Naja).A detailed description of the African spitting cobra can be found here >>>
AvicennaviperIn English the Avicennaviper (Cerastes viper) is called Sahara Sand Viper.The snake belongs to the genus of African horned vipers in the subfamily of true vipers (Viperinae) in the family of vipers (Viperidae). Despite its generic name (Ceraste) and in contrast to the other species of the Cerastes genus, it usually has no horns above the eyes.
Uraeus snakeThe Uraeus snake (Naja haje) is also known as the Egyptian cobra. Cleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt, is said to have taken her own life with her help.A detailed description of the Uräus snake can be found here >>>
Desert horned viperThe desert horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) belongs to the genus of African horned vipers (Cerasts) in the subfamily of the real vipers (Viperinae) in the family of vipers (Viperidae).
Mauritania: plants
Sahel zone
Mauritania is in the north in the desert. Grass and bush areas as well as acacias mark the transition from the desert steppe to the savannah landscape of the Sahel zone.
The Sahel zone (Sahel) is the semi-arid (semiarid) transition zone extending from west to east from the desert area of the Sahara in the north to the dry or wet savannah in the south. Severe droughts occur here every few years. In contrast to this, floods occurred in large parts of the Sahel zone in 2007, as a result of which millions of people were left homeless.
Various plants
Date palms in particular grow in the country’s oases, while raphia palms, baobabs and bamboo grow in the floodplain savannah of Senegal. In the coastal area there are extensive salt marshes with the corresponding plants. There are also various types of cacti that can get by with little water
. Grasses and small bushes grow in the Sahel. In the valley of the Senegal River you can find baobabs, raphia palms and bamboo.
