Roads: In late 1980s, only 1,500 kilometers of paved roadway out of a total 9,000 kilometers of roads. Unpaved roads generally tracks across the sand. Costs for maintaining sand-free roads exceeded budgetary means.

Railroads: 650-kilometer standard-gauge single-track line linked Zouīrāt mines with port at Nouadhibou and carried only iron ore.

Ports: Nouadhibou most important, with facilities for handling ore, processed fish, and commercial shipping. In late 1986, new Chinese-built Friendship Port with annual capacity of 500,000 tons inaugurated at Nouakchott but not yet operational by late 1987 because it still lacked certain facilities and equipment.

Airports: Nouakchott and Nouadhibou most important both capable of handling most commercial jet aircraft. Thirty regional airfields served by Air Mauritanie, national airline.

Communications: Barely adequate system of cable, openwire lines, radiotelephone, and wireless telegraph linked Nouakchott to Paris, most regional capitals, and some other towns in Mauritania. Also linked to International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) and Arab Satellite Telecommunications Organization (ARABSAT) networks.

Data as of June 1988