Sixth Nouakchott summit: Effective steps on path to counter terrorism

Ahmed Adel

The sixth summit of G-5 African Sahel countries, with the participation of France and the European Union, was launched on Tuesday, February 25 with the aim of developing a multi-dimensional plan of action to confront the increasing terrorist operations in the African Sahel region.

The G-5 was established in the African Sahel in February 2014 between Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger at the conclusion of a summit in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. The group sought to “coordinate and follow up on regional cooperation”, especially in the area of regional counterterrorism.

Mauritania is an active member of the Sahel group and is also the only Arab country in it, which makes it a main axis in the process of communicating with supporters of the group. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is considered the most interested of the G-5 leaders in the war on terrorism because of his military background. He progressed through various military positions until he became army chief of staff and then minister of defense. He succeeded in reforming the military establishment and fought a fierce war against armed organizations, which have been unable to launch any attack on Mauritanian territory since 2011, unlike the rest of the Sahel countries that suffer from terrorist attacks.

Hotspot

Before 2010, Mauritania had turned into a hotspot for terrorist activity in the Maghreb and African Sahel, especially after the increase in activity of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The danger increased remarkably during the year 2009, which witnessed the assassinations of a number of European nationals.

Years after the start of the open confrontation with the armed groups, Nouakchott realized that the security control strategy was not enough to confront the violence. So in 2012, Mauritania rushed to review its military approach in fighting the armed Islamist groups, by strengthening its security grip and working to dry up the intellectual sources of extremist groups by opening a dialogue with al-Qaeda detainees in Nouakchott prisons and releasing dozens of them after they signed declarations in which they affirmed their abandonment of violence and their rejection of the terrorist organization’s methodology.

The Brotherhood organization is also represented in Mauritania by the National Rally for Reform and Development, which receives suspicious funds from Qatar and Turkey. When Ghazouani took power, he worked to contain the Brotherhood and then completely excluded them from the political scene.

Pau 2020

The Nouakchott summit in February 2020 is the first since the French Pau summit in January 2020, during which the establishment of the international Sahel Alliance was announced, which includes France, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and a number of other countries.

The G-5 Sahel countries rely on coordination among their agencies to face security challenges and avoid the risk of chaos that threatens some of the countries. In this context, the leaders of the G-5 armies and security services agreed to activate cooperation mechanisms between member states and their partners in the field of combating terrorism and organized crime, as well as adapting the group’s work to the requirements of the current stage and the successive developments.

African affairs researcher Nasser Mamoun Essa told the Reference that despite the suffering that the African continent faces from the ferocity of terrorism by armed organizations, it is receiving international and regional attention, as the Sahel and Sahara region is an area rich in natural resources and a lush investment environment.

Essa added that Mauritania is one of the 138 countries in the annual rankings of the Institute for Economics and Peace, which places it among the most stable countries in the Sahel and Sahara region, as the country has adopted means to fight against terrorism and confront armed organizations.