Le désert existe pour que l'homme y trouve son âme.
Proverbe mauritanien
Overseas Campaigns : Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania, a Saharan country of West Africa, with a surface area of over 1 000 000 km2 and a long stretch of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, has less than 3 000 000 inhabitants (in 2004). Her predominantly Muslim population, is made up mainly of Arabs and Berbers, and to a lesser extend Haratins.
Conquered at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mauritania became a French colony in 1920, and later on an overseas territory in 1946. In 1956, Morocco, which is separated from Mauritania by Western Sahara, a Spanish protectorate, became independent.
In 1957, Nouakchott was made capital and Mauritanian independence was proclaimed despite opposition from Morocco and the United Arab League, which refused to recognized the existence of this state. Moreover, some territorial claims around Western Sahara were creating tension between Morocco, France and Spain, on the one hand, and the Western Sahara Independence Movement, on the other.
Operation Ecouvillon
At the beginning of 1957, Western Sahara staged an armed rebellion, an action which immediately triggered off the French-Spanish operation “Ecouvillon”, led with Moroccan participation. This operation witnessed the deployment of heavy air and ground military equipment, particularly from bases on Algerian territory where France, which was involved in an armed conflict against the National Liberation Front, had stationed her vital military resources.
Several thousands of soldiers, hundreds of vehicles and several dozens of aircrafts of the air force were mobilized, and they suppressed the insurrection without pity. This mission having been accomplished, Operation Ecouvillon ended in late 1959.
As concerns Mauritania-Morocco relations, a treaty was signed in 1970, with Morocco abandoning her claims while Mauritania reintegrated the United Arab League shortly after. However, on November 14, 1975, when Spain decided to let go her sovereignty over Spanish Sahara, His Majesty King Hassan II of Morocco launched his famous “Marche verte”. The Madrid agreement thus divided Spanish Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania, thereby stirring up an armed conflict with the Polisario Front, an independence organisation which proclaimed the “Arab Democratic Republic of Western Sahara” supported by Algeria, which had equally gained independence.
Operation Lamantin
In May 1977, Mauritania suffered raids from the 7 000-man Polisario force, which, from its bases in Algeria, launched attacks against the Zouerate mining installations and the Nouakchott-Nouadhibou railway, vital areas of the Mauritanian economy.
Moroccan troops fought on the side of the Mauritanian army. In November 1977, in response to a request by Mauritania, the French army also came in to offer support, within the framework of Operation Lamantin. The mission of the French troops was to put an end to the actions of the Polisario guerrilla and to bring them to the negotiation table.
Detachments of the air force, the army and the navy were dispatched to the scene. Missions aimed at locating Polisario mobile columns turned out to be very efficient and the Polisario had no other option than abandoning its military actions.
A ceasefire was declared between Mauritania and the Polisario Front in October 1978. However, hostilities continued between Morocco and the Polisario, with the latter using the desert zones of the north of Mauritania as “sanctuaries” from where they attacked Moroccan troops from the rear. Mauritania thus continued to be involved in the conflict due to the tension that reigned at her borders.
On August 7, 1979, Mauritania signed a new agreement with the Polisario Front in Algiers, according to which, she had to abandon all her sovereignty claims over Western Sahara.
Fighting continued to rage on between the Polisario and Morocco for several months before calm finally returned to the borders.