Contrary to the widespread perception that Mauritania has moved toward democracy, this troubled country faces continued ethnic tensions and the prospect of increasing repression.
About the Author
Boubacar N’Diaye, a former high-level civil servant in Mauritania, currently teaches black studies and political science at the College of Wooster in Ohio. His most recent scholarly works deal with civil-military relations in Africa, democratization prospects, human rights, and pan-Africanism. He is author of The Challenge of Institutionalizing Civilian Control (2001).
Since Tanzania’s 2015 elections, rising repression and opposition protest have displaced an older dynamic of comparatively restrained and unchallenged dominance by the ruling party.