Helena Olsson 2012

• Multiethnic country which bridges the Arab
Maghreb and western sub-Saharan Africa
• A transit country
• Geopolitical and strategic position
• Internal and external challenges
Helena Olsson 2012

• The process of construction of the State
• The process of democracy;
• The process of construction of identity and
social cohesion.
• The geopolitical position and external tensions
Helena Olsson 2012

• 3 million inhabitants
• Ethnic groups: Arabs, peulhs, soninkés
• Religion: Sunni Islam
• 1 million km2
• GDP: approximately $ 3.5 billion
• GDP per capita: $900
• Poverty: about 40%
• HDI 2010: 136th of 170 countries
Helena Olsson 2012

• Independency 1960
• Mohtar Ould Daddah: growing arabisation of the educational system, dictatorship, respect for real of order never established
• 1991: new constitution, multiple political parties
• 2005 military coup and democratic transition: organisation of free elections.
• Cited in 2007 as a 'model' of democratic transition
• New military coup 2008
Helena Olsson 2012

• Law: combination of Sharia and French Civil law-
• Using Sharia for legitimacy purposes.
• Islamic law/French law: not necessarily. identical approaches. Unclear guidance by the state.
• Slavery criminalized but still existing.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Arab-Berger Moorish tribes
• Harratin: former slaves; “black Moors”, 40%
• Black Africans
• White Moors/black Moors/black African : each
30-40 %. Census after 1960 never made public.
• Tribal and regional splits in the country.
• Lack of intergroup communication and understanding
Helena Olsson 2012

• Holding people in slavery is seen as socially acceptable in wide range of socio-ethnic groups.
• The status of being enslaved has been part of the social structure among Moors and the different black ethnic groups for generations.
• (Extreme) violence is not required to preserve slavery.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Society is still marked by a mentality of inequality.
Slavery continues; the descendants of slaves find difficulty to access knowledge and power.
• Difficulty to broaden political participation, while social segments are won by radical temptations.
• Juxtaposition of economic marginalization
• Concentration of wealth, linked to the exercise of the power.
• Imperfect targeting development policy to the benefit of vulnerable groups and systemic corruption reduce the ability of the State to ensure a minimum of human security to the people.
Helena Olsson 2012

• The ruling elites find more advantage in a closed system where they can 'negotiate' compromise, than in an open system.
• Low interest in building of a strong State.
• Poverty eradication: people prefer clientelism and corruption because of their redistributive effects;
• Patrimonialisation of power
• Parties have difficulty to impose themselves as vectors of political socialization;
• Oligarchic groups hiding behind the screen of the institutions.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Gap between citizens and the institutions: risk to establish a formal framework, operating in isolation, far from the social realities.
• Emptiness of the institutions and the lack of
effective counterweiling powers.
• Politicization and interference of the army in
politics: (17 coups, including 5 successful).
• failure of institutions to resolve political conflicts within a constitutional framework.
Helena Olsson 2012

• National identity and the uncertain sharing of power.
• Access to resources which generate, sometimes, a competition for survival, exacerbated by the scarcity of resources.
• Redistribution of wealth, due to gaps in income and correlation between the traditional social status and level of poverty.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Salafists.
• Migration, various traffic, road of the drug (10 tonnes seized and
274 arrests among cross-border supply chains in 2010).
• 'Constable of the desert', (fight against the terrorist threat).
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- Fundamentalism feeds itself on martyrdom.
- Fundamentalism feeds of 'political world disorder.
Therefore: The fight against terrorism is a collective responsibility
Helena Olsson 2012

• A 'popular' islam emerging more and more as challenging the legitimacy of the State and the
'official' islam.
• After 2010 a new doctrine which combines firmness to dialogue with the moderate and forgiveness for 'repentant'.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Commitment of dialogue (2010) between renowned theologians, mandated by the Government, and detainees.
• Calls by great scholars encouraging the return to the virtues of tolerant Islam.
- Release of 52 people, convicted in cases related to terrorism. Having expressed their repentance, they committed themselves to "conform to tolerant Sunni islam.
- The authorities plan to allocate funding for rehabilitation.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Located on the road to transsahariens exchanges.
• Contribution to the expansion of Islam in Africa.
• Reputation in the East, where number of its theologians have always served as imams or muftis.
• Arab financing.
• Large network of Mauritanian traders.
• Western Sahara (Mauritania neutral but the new tensions a risk factor)-
• Malian border.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Globalization vs traditional values.
• Limited inability of the State to ensure a minimum of human security.
• The development of AQMIs activities, since 2005, shows that emergence of radical thinking is current, an antithesis of the national tradition and putting in question the legitimacy of the State.
• Taking advantage of instability and the weakeness of the state AQMI could emerge as a sustainable challenging force, mobilizing the poorest layers. The weakness of the
State and national capacities for control of borders (+ 5,
600sq km) make of Mauritania 'soft belly of the region.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Risky choices of the 1990s to be closer to the
West.
• Suppression of the religious intelligentsia:
Salafism, the natural son of the police state?
• Widespread corruption of the ruling elites.
• Establishing relationships with Israel; (disagreed).
• Volunteers , trained and radicalized, returned and continue the struggle against the
Government (GSPC AQMI 'Ansar Allah El
Mourabitoune').
Helena Olsson 2012

- Implementation of intervention groups specialising in the fight against terrorism.
- Organized in light, mobile units.
- Preventive attacks of Al Qaeda bases to destabilize the enemy and prevent its operations in the country.
- Systematic denial of the exchange of prisoners against the hostages.
- Infiltration of officers to encourage to desertion.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Ambition to cooperate with the rest of the international community to control the chaos in the Sahara and play a stabilizing role and encourage dialogue between Islam and the West.
• However a proactive commitment in the fight against terrorism causes.
• Change of budgetary priorities in favour of the defence and to the detriment of social.
• Risk of failure of the internal consensus and discredit attached to a close cooperation with the West (seen as the heir of the Crusades, colonization and the protector of
Israel);
• Risk of military adventure against an unfindable enemy.
Helena Olsson 2012

• Governments have implemented religious legitimation strategies to limit the influence of the radicals, based on:
- the reaffirmation of the Islamic identity: proclamation of the Islamic law (shariaa) as the sole source of law in the country;
- Control of training and recruitment of religious leaders, and 'production' of moderate imams to limit the influence of the radicals.
Helena Olsson 2012