Mauritania 2016

Yearbook 2016

Mauritania. In May, the country’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, announced his intention to call a referendum on whether to abolish Parliament’s House of Commons, the Senate. According to countryaah, the current population of Mauritania is 4,649,669. The Senate has 56 members who are elected indirectly for a term of six years. In its place was the idea that regional councils should be set up.

Mauritania Population 2016

A few days later, the opposition alliance National Forum for Democracy and Unity (FNDU) organized a demonstration against the proposal in the capital Nouakchott, in which several thousand people participated. Protests were also directed at a proposal by some government officials to amend the constitution so that President Abdel Aziz can stand in the 2019 presidential election. The president, who took power in a bloodless coup in 2008, has won two presidential elections (2009 and 2014) and promised on the second occasion that he would respect the restriction on two terms of office prescribed by the Constitution. In November, Abdel Aziz again assured him that it was not relevant for him to stand for a third term in the upcoming elections.

In June, violence erupted when residents in one of the capital’s slums were evicted. The reason was that the land would be leased to other buildings. The area is mainly inhabited by people belonging to the population group of haratins, who have very low status. After clashes with the police, 13 anti-slavery activists were arrested. Although Amnesty International, among other things, demanded that the imprisoned activists be released, they were sentenced in August to between 3 and 15 years in prison for “use of force”.

  • Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the 3-letter abbreviation of MRT stands for the nation of Mauritania in geography.

HUMAN AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

State of north-western Africa, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. At the 2000 census the population was 2,508,159. (3,069,000 according to a 2005 estimate). In the space of forty years the country has undergone a certain process of transformation: nomadism, which in 1965 affected two thirds of the residents, took on residual dimensions (128,000 people in 2000); urbanization, estimated at 3 % in 1962, affects almost 6 out of ten residents; and Nouakchott, the capital and the only major city in the country, with a population of 6,000. of 1962 passed to 558,195 residents at the 2000 census (but the nine municipalities of the Communauté urbaine de Nouakchott include one million). Illiteracy has regressed (89 % in 1965 and 49 % in 2003), life expectancy at birth has increased, while the birth rate has shown a small containment (45 ‰ in 1965 and 42 ‰ in 2003).

Despite these changes, the country has remained substantially poor, even in the presence of some modern phenomena. The primary sector now plays a marginal role, while fish resources have assumed great importance: Mauritania has very fishy waters, but is unable to exploit them. In the 1990s, fisheries agreements were signed with the European Union, Russia and Japan, the proceeds of which in 2004 constituted a quarter of the state’s income. In the extractive sector iron maintains a strong presence (represented in 2005 the 40% of exports). In the nineties some mines were abandoned due to the exhaustion of resources, with a progressive loss of importance of the sector (its share in the GDP went from 36 % in 1965 to 10 % in 2004). In 2001, new deposits of other minerals were discovered, the exploitation of which began in 2005: gold, copper and diamonds, but above all oil, whose reserves are estimated at one billion barrels.

August

Abdelaziz in week-long interrogation

August 24th

According to thereligionfaqs, Former President Abdelaziz of Mauritania has been released after being questioned by prosecutors for a week over suspected economic turmoil during his tenure, according to a new report from a commission set up by parliament. Azizi is not charged but is deprived of his passport.

Ministers are replaced

August 6th

The entire Sidiya government is resigning for unclear reasons. Three days later, former political adviser Mohamed Ould Bilal is appointed new prime minister. It then appears that a commission appointed by parliament in January 2020 published a report on controversial economic activities committed during President Abdelaziz’s time in power between 2008 and 2019. These include how oil revenues were used and how privatizations of state property went ill. Sidiya and three other ministers are mentioned in the report. Eighteen of the 22 ministers in the new government also sat in Sidiya’s government.