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Mauritania: Sudden customs tax increase at border with Morocco jolts food markets in Mauritania
Households and consumers in Mauritania are experiencing spikes in food prices. A the Nouakchott fruit and vegetable market prices surged over the days, following the sudden increase in customs taxes at the border point of Guerguérat separating Mauritania and...
Mauritania: Christian group released from detention, expelled from Mauritania
Media sources report that 15 Christians leaders and their families who were arrested by Mauritania at the end of November 2023, were released on 18 December. The group was arrested following the release on social media of a video filmed in Mauritania showing a baptism...
Four Mauritanian gold miners were killed last weekend near Gleibat El Foula ($)
Morocco-Mauritania relations: Tensions after killing by drone of Mauritanian civilians
The Moroccan media said the Mauritanian authorities have abruptly increase by 171% the customs duties applied to Moroccan goods entering Mauritania through the border site of El Guerguerat, at the southern tip of the Western Sahara. In its X account (formerly known as...
Sahel: Mauritania sends ex-president Ould Abdelaziz to prison for corruption
A court in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on Monday sentenced former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to five years in prison for having abused his position to amass an ill-gotten fortune. Aziz, who ruled the pivotal country between North Africa and sub-Saharan...
Sahel: Mauritania urges Mali to rejoin W.African anti-jihadist force
Mauritania's president on Monday urged Mali to rejoin a West African anti-jihadist force and regional grouping known as the G5 Sahel, which it quit last year Mali announced its decision in May 2022, slamming a "loss of autonomy" and "instrumentalisation" within the...
Sahel: Cocaine trafficking surges in the Sahel, as armed groups seek to profit from illicit trade
Annual cocaine seizures in the Sahel surged from 13 kilograms (28 pounds) in 2020 to 863 kilos just two years later as armed groups sought to profit from the illicit trade, the United Nations' drug agency said in its 2023 report. The largest seizures of the drug in...
Sahel: Calm returns to Mauritania after riots sparked by death of man in police custody
The Mauritanian government cut internet access for mobile phones Wednesday, a day after protests over the death of a young man after a brief period in police custody. Despite the loss of internet access for mobile phones, fixed lines were still functional and business...
Mauritania: Ruling party wins legislative and local elections, opposition claims “massive fraud”
Mauritania Elections By Hademine Ould Sadi: The ruling party in Mauritania scored a comfortable victory in last week's legislative and local elections, according to official results on Sunday, a litmus test for the veteran head of state ahead of next year's...
Mauritania: Voting in local and legislative elections begins
El-Khadir Lamine, an 18-year-old student voting for the first time, said he was hoping for "new opportunities for young people". For the first time, voters can choose a list for candidates younger than 35, for whom 11 seats will be automatically attributed in the...
Sahel’s children are facing extreme dangers, desperately need humanitarian help
By Robin Millard: Ten million children in west Africa's central Sahel region are now in "extreme jeopardy" and desperately need humanitarian help due to worsening violence, the United Nations warned Friday. The number of children in dire need of aid in Burkina Faso,...
Sahel: Two prison guards killed during daring escape
Four jihadists have escaped from prison in Mauritania after a shootout left two national guards dead, the interior ministry said Monday, a rare event in a nation spared the insurgency sweeping through the Sahel. The incident, which took place in the capital on Sunday...
Sahel: Russia seeks greater influence over Mauritania, offers support
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday offered support for Mauritania in the fight against jihadism in the Sahel, saying he respected the country's position in the Ukraine war. His Mauritanian counterpart stressed his country's "respect for the rules of...
Mauritania: Trial over corruption of ex-president Abdelaziz begins this week
By Laurent Lozano and Hademine Sadi: Mauritania's ex-president Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz goes on trial on graft charges on Wednesday in an exceptional prosecution of a former African head of state. Abdelaziz, a 66-year-old former general, faces charges of having built up...
Mauritania: Ex President Ould Abdel Aziz prevented from leaving country amid corruption probe
Mauritania's ex-president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who faces a trial for alleged corruption, said on Thursday that he had been barred from travelling abroad. He went to the airport to travel on Wednesday but "was prevented from doing so by the political police, which...
Mauritania: Ex President Ould Abdel Aziz to face corruption trial
Mauritania's disgraced ex-president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, has been released from custody pending a trial on corruption charges, a judicial official said Thursday. The 65-year-old former general emerged late Wednesday from his home in the capital Nouakchott where...
Sahel: Millions of people face food shortages
The United Nations warned Friday that up to 18 million people in the Sahel face severe food insecurity, with rations being cut due to funding shortages. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said that conflict, the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and rising costs were...
Sahel: Slavery and forced child labor are alive and well in Mauritania
Mauritania has made progress in battling slavery but still has its work cut out to abolish the practice, the UN envoy on the issue said Friday. Slavery has been officially banned since 1981 and classified as a crime against humanity in the Sahel country, but...
Sahel: Mauritania accuses Mali army of crimes against its citizens
The foreign ministry in Nouakchott on Tuesday accused Mali's army of crimes against Mauritanians after protesters in the capital charged they had been killed "in cold blood". Mali's ambassador Mohamed Dibassy had been called in to hear a "strong protest against the...
Covid-19: Mauritania reinstates new measures to contain coronavirus
Mauritania, concerned over rising Covid-19 infections, has banned mosque prayers over the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha set for Wednesday in the West African country. Prayers will be confined to the home, the government in the conservative Muslim country said in a...
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