Latest Mauritania Stories

By Nick Tattersall NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritanians voted in a referendum on Sunday on whether to amend their constitution, in a ballot aimed at ending decades of coup attempts and one-party rule in the Islamic Republic. The polls in the impoverished nation, which straddles Arab and black West Africa, are the first since a military junta seized power in a bloodless coup last August and lay the foundation for a presidential election next March. If approved, the changes would make...

By Ibrahima Sylla NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritanian security services have rounded up dozens of suspected members and supporters of an al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebel group who were plotting attacks, security sources said on Friday. At least two of the detainees were suspected of involvement in a June 2005 raid on a remote military post which killed 15 Mauritanian soldiers while another was accused of belonging to an al Qaeda cell in Barcelona, Spain, the sources said. The arrests were...

By Nick Tattersall NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Harouna Diop remembers the days when there were only six small wooden fishing boats working the waters off Nouakchott's barren coastline. Just hours at sea in one of the richest fishing grounds in the world were enough to fill the long, brightly-colored vessels with sardinella, horse mackerel, snapper and tuna. Nowadays his son can spend a week on the water and still struggle to catch enough fish to earn a living. He and his fellow fishermen...

By Ibrahima Sylla NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Two people drowned and 30 were missing after a launch carrying would-be illegal immigrants from Mauritania to Spain's Canary Islands disappeared off the West African coast, emergency services said on Monday. Another launch transporting 25 people from Mauritania, Gambia, Senegal and Mali was rescued on Saturday afternoon after it had drifted for weeks along the coast of Mauritania following problems with its outboard motors, officials said. Navy...

By Ben Harding MADRID (Reuters) - More than 1,000 migrants have died trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands this year, the Red Cross estimated, as more and more Africans attempt to break into "Fortress Europe" by using ever longer sea routes. Officially, 106 immigrants have died trying to reach the Canaries since late December, most sailing north from Mauritania. However, Jaime Bara, head of African affairs at the Spanish Red Cross, said on Wednesday that the real figure was far...

By Ibrahima Sylla NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - More than 40 African migrants heading for Spain's Canary Islands drowned at the weekend when their boats sank off the West African coast, Mauritania's Red Crescent organization said on Monday. More than 40 other migrants were rescued in the incidents, which took place in waters north of the Mauritanian coastal city of Nouadhibou, off the coasts of Western Sahara and Morocco, a Red Crescent spokesman said. "There were two shipwrecks from Saturday...

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania -- Mariem Sow was a little girl when her sister Zeinabou choked to death in front of her while being force-fed camel's milk by a family slave.Beaten if she refused to swallow the rich diet of sweetened milk and millet porridge, Zeinabou was one of many Mauritanian girls fattened up because of an ancient belief that corpulent women make more desirable wives."As soon as my older sister was 12 they started force-feeding her so she would be plump by 15. They wanted to...

By Nick Tattersall NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania's new prime minister said he wanted democratic elections as soon as possible after last week's coup and vowed the Islamic Republic would remain a U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism. A military junta seized power on August 3 in Mauritania, which straddles black and Arab Africa and is due to start pumping oil next year. The coup ended 21 years of rule by authoritarian leader Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. The 17-member military...

By Nick Tattersall NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday dropped a demand that Mauritania's ousted president should be restored, saying it was pressing the military junta in the West African state to carry out a constitutional transition of power. Diplomats said foreign nations would support the junta, which staged a bloodless coup last week, if it showed it could live up to a pledge to organize democratic elections. The seizure of power by the 17-member military council in the...

By Nick Tattersall NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Foreign nations will support the military junta that staged a bloodless coup in Mauritania if it shows it can live up to a promise to organize democratic elections, diplomats said on Tuesday. A 17-member military council seized power in the Islamic republic last week, ending two decades of authoritarian rule by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya and promising presidential elections within two years. Jubilant residents took to the streets of the...