Faithful to the military rigor inherited from a life spent at the head of the Mauritanian army, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani took a determined step forward to the podium of the African Union (AU), Saturday February 17. He delivered, straight as an i, his first speech as current president of the pan-African organization. However, it is reluctantly that the Mauritanian president agreed to take on this responsibility for the coming year.
Courted by its North African neighbors, who were responsible for appointing one of their own to take over the rotating presidency of the AU in 2024, Mauritania ended up giving in at the last moment to avoid blocking the institution. . In a region where the Algerian and Moroccan neighbors are at loggerheads, the country has established itself as a choice of compromise, with a man of consensus at its head, without a declared enemy, appreciated by its peers and international partners.
Considered a discreet, even taciturn leader, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani did not betray his reputation when he spoke before the general assembly in Addis Ababa. In a monotone, he outlined the challenges of the AU this year (modernizing education, deepening the African free trade zone, ensuring food security) before becoming animated by evoking the explosion of outbreaks of violence in Africa. Conflicts like the civil war in Sudan, the military escalation between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the strong turbulence in the Horn of Africa to which the AU is struggling to respond.
The Mauritanian president also did not fail to emphasize that “the Sahel region is one of the areas most exposed to these risks on the continent.” The crisis affecting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – from which Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have announced their withdrawal – partly explains Mohamed Ould Ghazouani’s lack of enthusiasm for take over the rotating presidency of the AU.
Master of the security device
The one who is unanimous in both the Maghreb and the Sahel, where he takes care to display his neutrality, “will be forced to get involved in this issue,” confides a Mauritanian diplomat on condition of anonymity. Indeed, his predecessor at the head of the AU, the Comorian Azali Assoumani, had a series of failures in his attempts to mediate with the putschists. The Mauritanian president appears to be the ideal candidate to keep the channel of discussion open, particularly because Mauritania was part of ECOWAS until 2000, subsequently favoring the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).
“Of all the heads of state on the continent, he is the one who best knows the terrorist threat and the dynamics in the Sahel. He is able to speak to all the actors,” continues the Mauritanian diplomat. Throughout his career, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has fought terrorism as head of intelligence, chief of staff of the army, minister of defense and then president of the Republic since 2019. Mauritania is an exception to this. regard. No Islamist attack has been committed there for thirteen years.
It was as master of the security apparatus that the strong man of Nouakchottt first proved himself. A graduate of the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, Morocco, he rose through the ranks of the army in the shadow of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, his predecessor, whom he has known since their joint military studies. He will notably be at his side during the 2008 coup d’état.
At the time of the handover between the two presidents in 2019, many believed that Ghazouani, of a reserved character, would be Aziz’s puppet. But, less than a year later, the new president carried out a clean-up of the previous administration. And at the end of the “trial of the century”, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was sentenced in December 2023 to five years of imprisonment for “illicit enrichment” and “money laundering”.
Appreciated by Emmanuel Macron
In June, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani will have to put his mandate on the line during the presidential election. He is running as a favorite after the large victory of his party, El Insaf (the Equity Party), in the legislative elections last year, which saw him win 107 of the 176 seats in the National Assembly, no without the challenge of the opposition parties. Coming from the influential maraboutic tribe of Ideiboussat, the head of state gradually managed to control the Moorish political system (the dominant community), the richest and most powerful in this multi-ethnic country where political arrangements are made of subtleties. alliances between tribes.
Paris would look favorably on his re-election. Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is appreciated by Emmanuel Macron, who considers Mauritania as an island of stability and a pillar of the fight against terrorism in a region where France is in decline. Recently, Nouakchott has moved closer to Brussels, which works with Mauritanian security services to manage migratory flows. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced in early February financial support of 210 million euros to help Mauritania secure its border with Mali and monitor its coasts, lined by migrant boats attempting to crossing to the Canary Islands.
But among the many files that occupy Mohamed Ould Ghazouani’s office, there is one that undoubtedly sits at the top of the pile: the entry of Mauritania into the club of gas countries. The president, if re-elected, should inaugurate this year the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim deposit, located on the maritime border with Senegal. A second deposit, Bir Allah, located 60 km further north, would have the fourth largest reserves on the continent. Their production could, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), triple Mauritanian GDP by 2025.