Pétanque in Mauritania

Pétanque runs deeper in Mauritania than its modest international profile suggests: the national team has held a men's triplette World Championship medal since 2010, and Nouakchott hosted the continent's flagship tournament, the African Championship, in 2025.

History

The Fédération des Jeux de Boules de la République Islamique de Mauritanie (FJBRIM), also referred to in some local media and on social platforms as the Fédération Mauritanienne des Jeux de Boules (FMJB), was founded in 1986 to develop and govern pétanque nationally. Mauritania is one of the roughly two dozen African national federations affiliated with the FIPJP through the continent's African Confederation (CASP), which elected a new president, Mahmoud Archane of Morocco, on 23 May 2026 in Abidjan, succeeding an interim leader who had himself replaced an outgoing Senegalese president. The federation's president is Mohamed Abdallahi Abidine, still listed as such on FJBRIM's own site as of this writing, with Tarek Akili having served as national team coach heading into the 2025 African Championship.

Federation Contact

The FJBRIM's registered head office is at the Stade Olympique in Nouakchott (aile sud, 1er étage, bureau n°1 et 2), reachable through the FIPJP's own correspondence routing at mauritanie@fipjp.com. Per the FIPJP's official nation directory, president Mohamed Abdallahi Abidine can be reached at +222 32 00 02 11 (also a WhatsApp number), and Abderrahmane Boujoumaa (also spelled Abdarrahmane Boujemaa) at +222 22 34 52 00 (WhatsApp +222 47 37 20 21) - this listing's title for him, secretary general, does not match FJBRIM's own current site, which lists him instead as first vice president, with Cheikh Abdel Kader MD Sellahi as the current secretary general; both titles are given here since the discrepancy could not be resolved against a dated source. Separately, the federation's own website lists a general public contact of +222 43 43 00 82 and fjbrim2023@gmail.com, alongside an address near the Complexe National Olympique in Nouakchott; this second address does not exactly match the FIPJP directory's Stade Olympique listing, so both are given here rather than treated as interchangeable.

World Championship Success

Mauritania's best-ever result on the world stage came at the 2010 Men's Triplette World Championship in Izmir, Turkey (7-10 October), where the national team was eliminated in the semi-final by eventual runner-up Madagascar and shared bronze with Spain, since that edition awarded bronze to both semi-final losers rather than playing a third-place match - France took the title. It remains Mauritania's only men's triplette World Championship podium finish to date. The team has continued to qualify regularly since: at the 2024 World Championship in Dijon, France, a squad of Moktar Fall, Mohamed Lemine Bakha, Aliou Guisset, and Moulaye Ahmed Abd Sallame (coached by Mohamed H'Meida) won four of five first-round matches (beating Hungary, Portugal, Denmark, and Côte d'Ivoire, losing only to Turkey) to advance to the second round before finishing outside the medals.

That 2024 Dijon finish was strong enough to secure Mauritania one of Africa's eight automatic berths for the 52nd Pétanque World Championship (Men's Triples), to be held 20-24 November 2026 at Khon Kaen University in Thailand after the event's original host, Malaysia, withdrew earlier in the year. Mauritania qualified third among the continent's automatic entries, behind 2024 runner-up Madagascar and Benin, ahead of the remaining automatic qualifiers Tunisia, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Burkina Faso - with further African berths decided in a day-one qualifying tournament held during Mauritania's own hosting of the 10th African Championship in Nouakchott that November. Mali also qualified for Khon Kaen, though the published list names it under both routes, so its exact route is unclear.

African Championships

Mauritania organized the 10th African Championship in Nouakchott (22-28 November 2025), contested across precision shooting, tête-à-tête, doubles, and triples. As host nation, Mauritania won its first individual African title when Amadou Traoré beat Tunisia's Khaled Bougriba 46-38 in the precision-shooting final, a tournament where Algeria's Samir Boutarfa also reached the precision-shooting quarterfinals before losing to Madagascar's Maminirina Andrianirainy. The host team also reached the doubles final before losing 13-7 to Senegal's Ciré Lamine Kane and Lamine Sow, taking silver. Côte d'Ivoire's Salif Kourouma won the tête-à-tête title, and Tunisia took the triples crown, with Congo-Brazzaville taking silver, Côte d'Ivoire bronze, and Senegal finishing fourth.

The Mauritanian Pétanque Scene

Pétanque is played on the sandy terrain characteristic of Nouakchott, where an estimated twenty clubs are active, alongside further clubs in Nouadhibou, Atar, and Rosso. The capital's main venue, the Espace Pétanque de Nouakchott in the Tevragh-Zeina district (also referred to as the Boulodrome Cheikh Ould Brahim), hosts competitions most weekends and staged the 2025 African Championship. The venue also hosted the Coupe Al Abtal, an annual tournament launched in October 2020 under the patronage of the Nouakchott regional authority.