Where is MAURITANIA located on the map?
Mauritania, in long form the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwestern Africa, located between 15 and 27 degrees north latitude and 5 and 17 degrees west longitude. Mauritania is part of the African Union, the Arab League, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the OMVS, as well as being a member of La Francophonie. The capital of present-day Mauritania is Nouakchott. The other main cities are Nouadhibou, Kiffa, Kaedi, Zouérate and Rosso.
It has a coastline of about 800 km on the Atlantic Ocean stretching from Ndiago in the south to Nouadhibou in the north. To the north, it is bordered by Algeria and Western Sahara (claimed by Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), from Mali to the east, and from Senegal to the south.
Where is the country of MAURITANIA situated?
Mauritania is a point of contact between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, making it a multi-ethnic country; it is populated by an Arab and Berber community in which two groups stand out: the Arab-Berber Moors called “White Moors” or Bidhaan (which would represent 30%), and of Haratines known as “Black Moors”, former slaves Arabic-speaking, Bafour and Negro-African origin (which would be 40% of the population), on the other hand of a Negro-African group composed of several ethnic groups, such as Peul, Soninkés, Wolofs and Bambaras, which would represent 30% of the population. It should be emphasized that the proportion of the different ethno-linguistic groups is not precisely known, since the advanced statistics vary greatly according to the source. For the record, statistics dating back to the 1960s indicated a proportion of about 80% of Arabic speakers (Hasanophones).
The name of the country comes from the Roman Mauretania, designating the territory of the “Moors”, Berber people, in antiquity. The territory of Mauritania, however, does not correspond to that of the ancient Roman province.
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