Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Opposition parties were legalized and a new constitution approved in 1991. Two multiparty presidential elections since then were widely seen as being flawed; Mauritania remains, in reality, a one-party state. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between its black minority population and the dominant Maur (Arab-Berber) populace.
Demographic Data
Capital: Nouakchott
Government type: Totalitarian Democracy
Government stability: 84.8%
Government efficiency: 37.5%
Population's support to government: 85.0%
Area: 1,030,400 square kilometers
Habitable land: 44.0%
Farmable land: 1.0%
Total population: 2,263 thousands
Population's growth: 3.2%
Country's development level: 3,530
Economic Data
GNP: 2,400,000,000
Industralisation: 53.8%
International funding: 3,000,000
Political Data
Secret services efficiency: 675
Military Data
Technological generation: 1
Number of rebels: 67
Rebels development: 3,177
Rebels technological access: 2,470