Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has called on West African countries to unite to tackle jihadism in an interview with AFP ahead of the country’s presidential election.
“The region needs to create a common political will to be able to fight insecurity,” Ghazouani told AFP on Friday, campaigning ahead of the June 29 election.
“I am not one of those who believe today that countries can face a threat like terrorism alone.”
The 67-year-old former army chief and defense minister is expected to serve a second term as head of the country of 4.5 million strategically located between North and sub-Saharan Africa.
He told AFP that “the security situation in the sub-region is not good at all” and had become “worse”.
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The military has seized power by force in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years, fueling uncertainty in the region. The vast desert nation of Ghazouni shares a border of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) with Mali.
While jihadism has spread across the Sahel, particularly in Mali, Mauritania has not seen an attack since 2011.
“We need to form a coalition,” Ghazwani said, urging countries in the region to “come together.”
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He spoke to AFP in Attar, about 450 kilometers northeast of the capital Nouakchott, where he launched his re-election campaign last week.
Ghazouani called for a possible replacement for the G5 Sahel alliance, which was formed in 2014 by Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, with the support of Western countries, to counter jihadism.
Military leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have all withdrawn from the G5 alliance in recent years.
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“If the G5 Sahel is not the right one, we have to find another G-something,” he said.
The three countries, which have broken militarily and politically with the former French colonial power, have drawn closer to Russia under their new military rulers.
They also withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and created their own alliance of Sahel states. Ghazouni said Mauritania did not seek any role in the internal affairs of other Sahel countries.
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“We respect their sovereignty in their decisions. We want these countries to move as quickly as possible towards elections,” he said.
Mauritania, which is rich in natural resources but still has a low gross domestic product, was hit by a series of coups from 1978 to 2008, before elections in 2019 marked the first transition between two elected presidents.
The president said stability has been maintained with awareness of the militant threat as well as “huge efforts” being made in education and health provision.
Ghazwani has pledged to “step up” welfare policy for the poor if re-elected, claiming that more than 1.5 million people had already benefited from housing and financial assistance during his first term.
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