A/HRC/11/36/Add.2 page 6 pogroms against Mauritanians in Senegal and Senegalese in Mauritania; hundreds were killed and nearly 300,000 people made refugees, displaced or repatriated. The repression organized by the Taya regime against Mauritanian citizens of black African origin, accused of “sénégalité”, led to the expulsion or flight of tens of thousands of Mauritanians to Senegal and Mali. This campaign of ethnic cleansing was accompanied by the destruction of identity documents, confiscation of property and land, arbitrary arrests, rape and summary executions. In the early 1990s nearly 60,000 black Mauritanians were living in refugee camps located along the border with Senegal and 40,000 were in camps in Mali. 6. The emergence in those camps of resistance movements that challenged the Arab-Berber political and economic domination of Mauritania led to new human rights violations against black Mauritanians in 1990-1991, in particular within the army and the administration. In 1990, on the basis of an alleged conspiracy among black Mauritanian officers, more than 3,000 black Mauritanian soldiers, civil servants and managers were detained and imprisoned and 500 of them executed in extrajudicial killings. 7. On 3 August 2005 a coup d’état led by Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall overthrew the Taya regime after more than 20 years in power. The Military Council for Justice and Democracy was established as a temporary body charged with “putting an end to the regime’s totalitarian practices, which had caused so much suffering among the population in recent years” and organizing “democratic elections open to all political groups”. 8. During this period, commonly referred to in Mauritania as the “period of transition to democracy”, major reforms were undertaken and several elections organized, including: a referendum in 2006 on amending the 1991 Constitution; legislative, municipal and Senate elections, likewise in 2006; and, in 2007, presidential elections that marked the end of the transition period. Mr. Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was elected President following multiparty elections generally considered to have been free and transparent, and took office on 19 April 2007. B. Population and ethnic, linguistic and religious composition 9. Mauritania is a multicultural and multi-ethnic country with a surface area of more than 1 million square kilometres. The population, estimated to be 3 million is made up of two major cultural and ethno-linguistic groups: the Arab-Berber or Beidane peoples, commonly referred to as Moors, largely nomadic and inhabiting mostly the north of the country; and the black African population, made up of Halpular, Soninke, Wolof and Bambara, mostly settled and inhabiting the south and east of the country. In addition to these two large groups there is a Harratin community, also called the black Moors, as opposed to the white Moors, black African by skin colour but an integral part of the Moorish ethnic group, whose language and culture they share. 10. Pursuant to article 6 of the Constitution of 2006 only Arabic has the status of official language whereas Arabic, Pular, Soninke and Wolof have the status of national languages. Hassanya, an Arabic language with Berber influences, is spoken by the Arab-Berber population, while Pular, Soninke and Wolof are spoken by the black African population. Article 5 of the Constitution makes Islam the official religion of the population and the State.