Mauritania - History
	Mauritania, formerly part of French West Africa, achieved full independence on 28 November 1960 (having become a self-governing member of the French Community two years earlier). Moktar Ould Daddah, leader of the Parti du regroupement mauritanien (PRM) and Prime Minister since June 1959 became Head of State at independence, and was elected President in August 1961. After independence all parties merged with the PRM to form the Parti du peuple mauritanien (PPM), with Ould Daddah as Secretary-General, and Mauritania became a one-party state in 1964. The country moved away from the French sphere of influence and towards closer relations with Arab nations. Under a tripartite agreement of November 1975, Spain ceded Spanish Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco, to be apportioned between them. The agreement took effect in February 1976, when Mauritania occupied the southern portion of the territory. Guerrilla fighting ensued, with Moroccan and Mauritanian troops in action against the forces of the Polisario Front, which sought independence for Western Sahara. Attacks within Mauritania by Polisario forces proved highly damaging to the economy. Diplomatic links with Algeria, which was supporting Polisario bases within its borders, were severed in March 1976. Meanwhile relations with Morocco improved, following that Country´s renunciation of territorial claims that included Mauritania, and in mid-1977 a joint defence pact was formed. Mauritania was spending two-thirds of its budget on defending territory that promised no economic benefits. Diplomatic relations with Morocco had been severed in 1981, with Mauritania accusing its neighbour of involvement in the attempted coup in March, and Morocco claiming in October that the Polisario Front was launching attacks on Moroccan territory from bases in Mauritania. Both countries denied the accusations. In 1983 Mauritania sought to improve relations between the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya) and was a signatory of the Maghreb Fraternity and Cooperation Treaty, drafted by Algeria and Tunisia. However, relations with Morocco deteriorated again after February 1984, when Mauritania announced its recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (the Western Saharan state proclaimed by Polisario in 1976). Taya restored diplomatic relations with Morocco in April 1985. Relations with Mali were also dominated by the issue of refugees, which was the subject of senior-level negotiations between the two countries in 1992-96. The problem of Mauritanian refugees in Mali (numbering about 15,000 in early 1995) was compounded by the presence in Mauritania of light-skinned Malian Tuaregs and Moors, as well as Bella (the descendants of the Tuaregs´ black slaves, some of whom remained with the Tuaregs).