2023-05-04 15:46:18
- Bassam Bonni
- BBC correspondent for North Africa
On the road to Chami, central-western Mauritania, the driver did not change the song that accompanied us throughout our journey. “Sudanese Mauritanian,” the song says. It was 2019, during our campaign trip to gold prospecting sites in the Mauritanian desert.
It is difficult to limit the history of Mauritanian-Sudanese relations. The coastline linking the two countries, whose real name is likely by historians and anthropologists to be “the plain” and not “the coast”, was a strategic corridor for merchants, centuries ago, and its movement increased during the pilgrimage seasons, especially following the French occupation of Algeria, in the summer of 1830.
Little by little, the shared legacy between the two countries seemed to run exhilaratingly deep. The Sudanese diplomat Hashim Saeed, who held the position of cultural and media advisor at his country’s embassy in Nouakchott, enumerates popular proverbs in which the peoples of the two countries participate, including “horses gallop and thank me Hammad,” which means that you are doing a job, but it is credited to others, or “your near neighbor is not friendly.” Your distant mother”, which means that you need the near neighbor, in many cases, more than your brother who is far away from you.
Convergence of moods
And the former Mauritanian ambassador, Mohamed Ould Mustafa, mentioned in a study that the Mauritanians interacted with the Nubians, in the far north of Sudan, Al-Sukut, Al-Mahas, and those who followed them from the Danakila, while they communicated with Al-Shayjia, Al-Badiriyya, and Al-Manasir, in the south. As for the proximity of the Nile, Weld Mustafa adds, dealing was mainly with the Ja’alis, and in the center of the country with the Musallamiya and the Rifa’is.
In its research in the Arab region, anthropology focused on the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean in addition to the countries of the Middle East and the Gulf, ignoring the richness that we find on the coastline in terms of mixing and closeness in moods due to the weight of the tribe, Sufi movements, and the conservative nature.
The two countries do not differ much in the human development index issued by the United Nations, as Sudan ranks 141st, while Mauritania ranks 154th, in an additional indication that the social, economic and cultural environment is similar to each other, with different contexts, especially with regard to the demographic aspect.
There is a conviction that the two countries are still struggling to establish a state of institutions, as the lack of social foundations complicates the fortification of the political system and the interference of “parallel parties” in decision-making.
Post-independence and dynamic governance
As a result of this accumulation, Muhammad Salih al-Shanqeeti, with Mauritanian roots, presided over the first legislative assembly in Sudan, between 1948 and 1953, during a decisive founding period. The ruling elite, in both countries, was formed around the military institution, until it became the most important incubator for presidents.
The two countries witnessed a period of instability, due to military coups. In Mauritania, the number of coups reached 7 in just 39 years, while in Sudan, there have been 13 coups since its independence in 1956.
Until recently, in Sudan, as in Mauritania, the military institution was seen as a guarantor of stability in the form of a “necessary evil”, to provide a minimum balance between regions and tribes.
However, the new generations have become more resistant to this idea, without taking the risk of saying that “the era of coups has come to an end.”
Seat for one military commander
image copyright Getty Images
Plumes of smoke rise over buildings in Khartoum as clashes continue
With the outbreak of internal fighting in Sudan, it became clear that the arena might not accommodate more than one military commander. The friendship of regarding twenty years between the army commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Muhammad Daglo, known as Hamidti, did not withstand the conflict of interests between the two men.
This is the situation that Mauritania experienced, since the presidential elections, in 2020, and following their participation in two coups, in 2005, once morest Muawiya Ould Sidi Ahmed Al-Taye, and in 2008, once morest Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallah, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and his companion, Mohamed Al-Ghazwani, traded. The two descended from the military establishment, seized power, before the latter sought to contain the former, to keep him out of decision-making circles.
Once elected, Ould Al-Ghazwani pushed for the formation of a commission of inquiry into Ould Abdel Aziz’s clan, even though he held the position of Minister of Defense and was the closest confidant of his predecessor. Ould Abdel Aziz said, on Wednesday, that all the charges brought once morest him by the committee are “fabricated and politicized.”
He added, before the Criminal Court specialized in corruption crimes, that he was “in solitary confinement for six months, and in his home with his family for eight months.” The conflict between the two men sparked severe tension in Mauritania.
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