Mauritania Independence Day!
Mauritania Independence day! Happy 59th birthday. On this day Mauritania gained its independence from France (Monday the 28th of November 1960.) Mauritania is a mainly desert country spanning the Arab Maghreb of North Africa and western sub-Saharan Africa. In the Middle Ages, Mauritania was the cradle of the powerful Almoravid dynasty, which spread Islam across North Africa and later controlled Islamic Spain.
In 1904, France established Mauritania as a colonial territory. The country finally gained independence in 1960, with Nouakchott as its capital. A series of military leaders followed until August 2005 when the Military Council for Justice and Democracy seized power and appointed a transitional government, promising to return the country to democracy by 2007. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was elected President of Mauritania in a run-off vote on 25 March 2007, in the first democratic presidential elections since independence.
Since 1975, it has been in tied up in a dispute with its neighbours Morocco and Algeria over the future of Western Sahara – a territory ceded to Morocco and Mauritania by Spain in 1975.
Independence Day is celebrated with a military parade that passes in front of a stage on which the president and his advisors are seated. The president addresses the nation in a speech.
More about Mauritania, key indicators, the resources it boasts here. We share information on how to navigate the country (languages, travel, food, accommodation) and everything else an entrepreneur would need.
