Mauritania coup

Northwest Africa's Arab-dominated countries have a tradition of independence from the Middle Eastern centers of power that dominate worldwide Arab culture and politics. Those tensions are reflected in today's military coup in Mauritania, a former French colony that is weak and impoverished even by African standards.

Talk about lesser of two evils. The coup was actually the work of political moderates in the military who are upset with the executive branch's recent shift toward pro-Islamist policies. Military leaders publicly supported anti-Islamist forces in the legislature, which pissed off the president and got the military officials fired. The coup was the response to the firings.

You know shit is fucked up when there's a third-world coup and the military could be seen as the good guys. The African Union has condemned the coup, since they are obligated to condemn all coups in the interest of stability on that continent. The AU has long had an uneasy relationship with Northwest Africa. Morocco, Mauritania's northern neighbor, is the only African nation not in the AU, thanks to the AU's support of Algerian-backed rebels in the disputed Western Sahara region of Morocco.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080806/ap_on_re_af/mauritania_coup

 

NO! NO!

Not Mauritania, where the hell am I supposed to vacation now?

 

That's what I was going to say.

 

Club Med has locations in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal, but yes, it looks as if Club Med Mauritania might be a while yet in coming. So put those plans to enjoy Club Med Mauritania's dune buggy excursions and all-you-can-eat gruel and water buffet on hold for the time being.

 

I'm going to the Sandals resort there, so hopefully that won't impact my vacation.

 

Already?

They just had a military coup three years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritania

Everyone there seems to be named Ould.

Is Mauritania the Kentucky of Africa?

 

Did they get a letter offering them new jobs with a 44% salary cut? [/crossthreading]

 

More like the death-trap of Africa. Independence hasn't worked out any better than colonization. Its Arabized and Sub-Saharan populations don't get along and now the Islamist element is creeping in. There's even slavery there, although it's illegal. One of the world's worst spots to be alive, really.

 

That's doing pretty well for Africa, isn't it?

 

Par for the course.

 

That whole country is basically a mistake of history, randomly carved out of the old French West Africa without regard to culture or anything else.

Many other African nations suffer for this same reason, their international borders were roughly determined by a European conference in the 1890s. Two tribes that hate each other? Eh fuck it, lets put them in the same nation (Rwanda) so we can have a straighter line on the map.

Is Mauritania's international border even defined yet? I know it was in a dispute over Morocco for a long time over where the border actually was. Like it matters, they're arguing over who gets what Sahara sand dune.

 

Spain kept the region known as Western Sahara even after Morocco and Mauritania became independent from France in 1956 and 1960, respectively. When the Spanish finally cleared out in 1975, the agreement was for Morocco to take the northern 2/3 of Western Sahara and for Mauritania to take the southern 1/3.

However, the old anti-Spanish rebel group didn't want Morocco and Mauritania to move in. The wanted the region to be independent- a semi-socialist, Arab nationalist republic along the lines of the old United Arab Republic, ideologically. Algeria supported the rebels. The rebels kicked Mauritania's ass but not Morocco's. Morocco moved into the southern third of the region that Mauritania couldn't hold and basically annexed the whole Western Sahara.

There's a "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic" government-in-exile based in Algeria but basically, Morocco has won the battle and probably the war. Meanwhile, Mauritania remains full of fail in that it's a sovereign country that couldn't defeat a stateless guerrilla movement.