Map:

Overview:
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 flawed, but October 2001 legislative and municipal elections were generally free and open. Mauritania remains, in reality, a one-party state. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between its black population and the Maur (Arab-Berber) populace.

The People:
Population: 3,086,859 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 45.8% (male 707,728/female 704,616)
15-64 years: 52% (male 792,589/female 813,763)
65 years and over: 2.2% (male 27,560/female 40,603) (2005 est.)

Religions:
Muslim 100%

Government Type:
republic

Leader(s) to pray for:
chief of state: President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA (since 12 December 1984); note - president TAYA deposed in a coup by the Military Council for Justice and Democracy led by Ely Ould Mohamed VALL on 3 August 2005
head of government: Prime Minister Sghair Ould M'BARECK (since 6 July 2003)

Source: The World Factbook

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