Mauritania pursues tourism revival following security stabilization

Stretching across a vast territory that is about 90 percent desert, Mauritania sits at the crossroads of North and West Africa. After a period which saw armed groups linked to al-Qaeda launching attacks in the mid-2000s, eventually fended off by several security measures, the country is now scrambling to rebuild its tourist destination. 

About 30,000 tourists used to flock here annually, but a grim episode in the country’s history stopped that flow. The government is now stepping up marketing campaigns, with some early signs of success, as Al Jazeera reports.

The Doha-based news network spoke to Sean Connolly, a travel expert who wrote the first English guidebook on Mauritania. He explained that the main attractive factor for visitors is the Northwest African nation's safety.

“Mauritania is left at the top of an increasingly short list of destinations where you can freely and safely explore the Sahara,” Connolly said.

Mauritanian tourism experienced a golden age in the early to mid-2000s. During those years, visitors arrived in large numbers during the cooler months between November and February, particularly from France. Many came for the Dakar Rally, the off-road motor race that once ran from Paris through harsh desert terrain to Dakar.

But from the mid-2000s, armed groups, including Algeria-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), began targeting areas across the country, including the capital, Nouakchott.

On Christmas Eve in 2007, AQIM fighters killed four French tourists near the western town of Aleg, in an attack that shocked the international community. The victims, members of the same family, were shot while picnicking by the roadside.
The suspects were later arrested and sentenced to death in 2010. By then, however, Mauritania had already suffered a series of attacks, including an attempted assault on the French embassy.

Tourist arrivals fell sharply. The Dakar Rally was permanently relocated to the Middle East, and charter flights that once brought French tourists directly to the Adrar region were suspended.

Government responds with harsher security measures

In response, the government strengthened its security apparatus. Elite military units were deployed to border areas, many of which were designated military zones. At the same time, authorities engaged religious leaders to preach against extremism, including in prisons holding suspected militants. Quranic schools were placed under closer scrutiny, while pathways into formal education were expanded.

More recently, the focus has shifted towards reducing rural poverty. Officials have expanded a social register of vulnerable households eligible for monthly stipends, while water, electricity, healthcare, schools and mobile networks have gradually reached more remote areas.

As a result, there have been no reported attacks since 2011.

While there are occasional claims of informal understandings between authorities and armed groups, those have not been confirmed, said Mauritanian researcher Baba Adou of the University of Florida. The collapse of security in neighbouring Mali since 2012, he noted, was favourable to Al Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS)-affiliated groups, and likely contributed to them leaving Mauritania.

But “border areas near Mali also remain prone to spillover,” Adou warned, as the situation in that country spirals further.

Allocating resources towards tourism industry

Officials have focused on participating in international tourism events, and inviting foreign tour agents to the country.

Tourist arrivals in Mauritania rose by 166 percent between 2018 and 2019 after visa fees were slashed from $139 to $46, bringing in approximately 4,000 visitors that season, according to government figures.

Some 7,000 visitors have visited this year alone, said Alioune Cheikh, who operates his own travel agency.

Numbers remain modest compared with the past, but in a country where roughly a third of the population lives in poverty, tourism has become an increasingly important source of income.

On social media, it is the Iron Ore Train that has become a viral symbol of Mauritania’s raw appeal. The 640 kilometres route runs daily between the inland mining town of Zouerat and the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou. Adventurers often ride its open freight cars, clinging to cargo wagons as they cross the desert.

But beyond the train, other sites are drawing visitors, particularly in the mountainous Adrar region, a landscape of canyons and oases.

At the ruins of the ancient city of Ouadane, tourists wander through stone doorways, reacting with quiet awe to the remnants of past civilisations.

By Nazrin Sadigova