Turkey finances Mauritania’s Brotherhood through relief work

Ali Ragab

A large number of Mauritanians organized a popular demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in the capital Nouakchott against the Turkish and Qatari presence in the country.

Turkey’s involvement in Mauritania by means of the National Rally for Reform and Development Party (Tawassoul) is part of Ankara’s strategic vision to penetrate several regions in Africa, especially in the western and central regions of the continent, as well as to encircle North Africa and the Sahel and Sahara region. Mauritania is the cornerstone of this scheme.

Meanwhile, Mauritanian media reports revealed the amount of Turkish funding for the Mauritanian Brotherhood. A confidential report prepared by the Mauritanian authorities stated that Turkey pumps more than $2 million annually into charities in Mauritania, but 85% of that amount is given to organizations with a political background that are linked to Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and other Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist currents, according to the Mauritanian news agency Al-Nabae.

According to the report, the charitable organizations benefiting from Turkish money are employing the funds for Tawassoul’s political propaganda in the countryside, inner cities and some poor neighborhoods in Nouakchott, by providing them with drinking water services in the countryside, building clinics and financing income-generating activities in order to gain the loyalty of these communities for the Brother-backed political party opposing the regime, which has been calling for the overthrow of the regime throughout past year by simulating revolutions in some Arab countries with Turkish support.

The Mauritanian newspaper Al-Badil also revealed ways that Turkey finances the Brotherhood, reporting that Tawassoul regularly receives funds estimated at tens of millions of dollars from Brotherhood organizations in Qatar and Turkey, which are transferred through merchants affiliated with the Brotherhood in Mauritania and Angola.

The report mentioned that the Turkish embassy in Nouakchott directly sponsors the activities of Mauritanian charitable organizations and provides them with training opportunities, working in parallel to contain Mauritanian media by regularly sending groups of journalists on visits to Turkey in order to promote the Turkish regime and turn a blind eye its growing influence in Mauritania.

Al-Badil added that the Mauritania branch of the Brotherhood possesses bodies that are responsible for collecting money and facilitating the subscription of terrorist movements, serving as the terrorist organization’s legal, strategic, political, trade, financial, charitable and spiritual arms.

The newspaper noted that the Brotherhood controls large commercial enterprises and is managing huge budgets that affect all commercial fields, including pharmacies, petrol stations, clothing and food stores, and car rental agencies, as well as the sale of hard currencies on the black market.

In September 2018, the Mauritanian authorities launched a campaign to close and ban institutions affiliated with the Brotherhood in the country. Mauritanian bloggers leaked a list of dozens of institutions, bodies and unions affiliated with the movement that are expected to be closed and banned in the coming days as part of the ongoing campaign to eradicate the Brotherhood from Mauritania.

The Mauritanian government said that investigations into the financing a scientific center and a university revealed the existence of “suspicions with regard to funding and spending.”

The Brotherhood relies on a number of axes to penetrate the powers of the Mauritanian economy under the guise of supporting civil and social activities, according to a report by Mahmoud Gamal Abdel Al at the Arab Research Center.

They are also clearly active in advertising, which is one of the most important weapons that Tawassoul relies on to confront government policies against it, using a large number of online platforms and newspapers, such as Al-Akhbar and Al-Sarraj, as well as charitable and social activities. They take advantage of the licenses granted to the Brotherhood’s charitable societies and organizations to facilitate access to foreign aid and funding in order to support its political agenda.

In September 2018, the Mauritanian government closed Abdullah bin Yassin University and the Scholars Training Center headed by Mohamed al-Dido, who leads the terrorist Brotherhood in Mauritania. The university is considered a stronghold for the terrorist group to spread extremist and terrorist ideas, generating generations of terrorists using religious slogans as cover for their actions.

The campaign to close Brotherhood institutions in 2019 included the Al-Khair Development organization and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth branch, both Brotherhood groups, against the background of “suspicions regarding funding and spending.”

These two institutions were closed less than a month after the government enacted the Anti-Terrorism Financing and Money Laundering Law, which aims to strengthen the regime’s fight against terrorism by blocking funding outlets, in addition to military and security mechanisms.