The February 25th Movement is a Mauritanian youth group, named after the date of the beginning of Mauritania's protests, and led by anonymous individuals who organise protests chiefly via new-media sites. The group also tries to attract members through more direct means, such as by distributing leaflets and posters.February 25 Movement Activists distribute thousands of leaflets
Agence Nouachott d'Information, June 11, 2012

History

The first opposition structure to emerge was the February 25 Coordinating Body, but this group fell apart due to internal tensions and disagreements, in part brought on by a desire of some members of the group to enter into dialogue with the government of President Aziz. This was condemned by the majority of the group's membership, who saw the move as a betrayal of the still relatively young opposition movement. Following the group's dissolution, a new group was formed under the title of the 25 February Youth Coalition. This group was successfully able to attract a large amount of support amongst the Mauritanian youth. Following government repression against the group, a new group named the February 25th Movement was formed.Mauritania: Dreaming about the Fall of the Military State
African Futures, September 2012, 2012.

Demands

The movement has also published a list of 28 grievances, including both political and economic problems.

Al Arabiya Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international Arabic news television channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC. The channel is a fl ...

, April 25, 2011. The group's demands include; the removal of the military from Mauritanian politics, the elimination of institutional racism, better rights for women, reformation of the country's education system, an end to the endemic corruption within government, the strengthening of Mauritanian civil society, and revamping Mauritania's foreign policy so that it better represents the interests of its citizens.

Relationships with other opposition groups

The movement has attempted to link up with other Mauritanian protest movements including the

Coordination of the Democratic Opposition Coordination may refer to: * Coordination (linguistics), a compound grammatical construction * Coordination complex, consisting of a central atom or ion and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions * Coordination number or ligancy of a cen ...

, the Don’t Touch my Nationality movement, and IRA-Mauritania.

Criticisms

The group has been criticized due to its lack of diversity, with most of the group's members and activists being Arabs, and therefore unrepresentative of wider Mauritanian society which is composed of

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

, Afro-Arabs, and

Blacks Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in ...

References

{{Arab Spring Politics of Mauritania Political organisations based in Mauritania Political parties in Mauritania