![logo-timbuktu-footer.png](/images/2018/01/19/logo-timbuktu-footer.png)
Sacré-Coeur 3 – BP 15177 CP 10700 Dakar Fann – SENEGAL.
+221 33 827 34 91 / +221 77 637 73 15
contact@timbuktu-institute.org
Source : Sahel weather
Download the full Sahel weather report
Despite the election campaign, Mauritania's president is very concerned about the security situation in the region. In an interview with AFP, he called on West African countries to form a bloc against jihadism, saying: "The region needs a common political will to fight insecurity". In his view, the security situation is deteriorating by the day, making it necessary to forge an alliance to block the path of the terrorists. It should be noted that Ghazouani has just won the Mauritanian elections with 56% of the vote, according to the provisional results of the CENI. For many observers, this defeat of the opposition is due to the dispersal of candidates within the opposition. This means that opposition candidates would do well to pool their forces in order to gain more votes and increase their chances of winning. It should be noted that part of the opposition rejected these results.
During the election campaign, the outgoing president had focused his campaign on security and employment to charm the young electorate and hope for the support of the international community. For this second term, he marked the campaign with the slogan "Ready for your support, in gratitude and loyalty", focusing on stability in the region and "creating opportunities for Mauritania's youth".
Mauritania presents itself as a stable country in this unstable sub-regional space. Its territory is the only one of the former G5 Sahel countries not to have experienced major terrorism since 2011. With the discovery of significant quantities of gas that the country is exploiting with Senegal, the country would benefit from working harder to stabilize its area. According to Abdellahi Ewah, a professor at the University of Nouakchott and supporter of the outgoing president, the country has become "very important for Europe's energy security, as it will become a gas producer and is very promising in terms of green hydrogen, an energy destined to replace fossil fuels". The challenge is enormous, and calls for all levels of society to be aware of the issues at stake.
The former Mauritanian Foreign Minister advocated "better control of gold resources and more transparent regulation of the sector by States", including all levels of society for an inclusive and participatory approach. He also raised the issue of the link between the circulation of gold and the financing of terrorism in the Sahel.