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It was a controversial election, boycotted by several parties, but General Ould Abdel Aziz has been returned as the president of Mauritania, winning 82 percent of the votes.
Aziz has been congratulated by the African Union as well as the United States and France, which see him as a key ally in their "war on terror."
But while he claims to be a defender of human rights, Mauritania has become known as the last bastion of slavery.
Although the practice was finally criminalized in 2007, the country still has around six hundred thousand people, known as Haratan, who are held in bondage by fellow Mauritanians.
While the Haratan are black sub-Saharan Africans, their "owners" are overwhelmingly lighter-skinned Arabs.
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