Mauritania in 2004

Mauritania in 2004

Area: 1,030,700 sq km (398,000 sq mi)
Population (2004 est.): 2,774,000
Capital: Nouakchott
Chief of state: President Col. Maaouya Ould SidʾAhmed Taya
Head of government: Prime Minister Sghair Ould MʾBarek

On Aug. 10, 2004, the government of Mauritania claimed that it had prevented an army coup aimed at assassinating Pres. Maaouya Ould Taya a few days before his official visit to France. At least 20–30 soldiers, many of them high-ranking officers in the elite National Guard, were arrested. Defense Minister Baba Ould Sidi accused the plotters of having close links with the failed coup of June 2003, for which 123 men remained in detention. There was apparently considerable discontent in the army over issues ranging from low pay to the government’s maintenance of diplomatic relations with Israel. On August 27 Chief of Police Sidi Ould Riha charged that the governments of Burkina Faso and Libya had supported the coup and had allowed rebel commando units to live and train on their territory.

Mauritania, among the world’s poorest nations, saw prices rise sharply and the value of its currency plummet by 30% beginning in May. On July 26, as part of a purge affecting those responsible for economic policy, Pres. Taya reshuffled his cabinet and fired nine senior members, as well as the governor of the central bank. On August 3 the World Bank announced a grant of $15 million to Mauritania to modernize its education sector. An Australian corporation announced on May 31 that it would invest $600 million to develop the Chinguetti offshore oil field, thought to be Mauritania’s most promising petroleum site.

In August the government appealed to the global community for planes and insecticides to combat a locust plague; massive infestations of the pests were devastating many of Mauritania’s fields and pastures, and a major food crisis seemed inevitable.

Nancy Ellen Lawler