Anger of increasing UAE military influence in Mauritania
Anger reigns in Mauritania over the UAE’s growing military influence in the country, in the service of Abu Dhabi’s plots to gain influence and expansion.
The entry of the UAE strongly in the economic, military and even media fields in Mauritania recently raises a wide debate in the Mauritanian street, while observers wonder about the price that Mauritania will pay for this aid.
Mauritanian parties accuse the UAE of interfering in its internal affairs, just as they were supporting former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz against the Mauritanian opposition and pushed him to close the headquarters and properties of these parties, especially the Islamic parties.
An Emirati military delegation visited Mauritania on Saturday to study a project to develop a military airport in the north of the country, according to military sources said, “the delegation will hold meetings with a number of officials in the army, especially the leaders of the northern region.”
The source added, “It was agreed in a previous visit by the Chief of Staff of the UAE Air Force to Mauritania to develop the airport located at the northern military base, an agreement that falls within the framework of military cooperation between the two countries.”
The airport is located in a strategic area close to the border between Mauritania and Mali on the one hand and between Mauritania and Algeria on the other hand.
Bilateral military cooperation between Mauritania and the UAE has developed since Mauritania lined up with the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war and decided to cut ties with Qatar in 2017.
In addition to exchanging visits and meetings that the two sides conceal, the UAE donated months ago to the Mauritanian army a military plane operating in the tasks of air reconnaissance, paragliding, and the transport of soldiers and supplies. It also opened a defense college in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott called the Mohammed bin Zayed College.
And at the end of 2018, the Mauritanian government approved, during an extraordinary meeting, a decree that includes the ratification of a contract to assign its international airport, “Umm Al-Tunisi”, to the UAE company (Afro Port), a company created by “Abu Dhabi Airports” to take over the running of Nouakchott Airport.
Under the deal, which many describe as “suspicious” and had previously sparked widespread controversy on social media in Mauritania, Nouakchott waives the Emirati company to running the country’s only air portal for 25 years, while neither the Mauritanian government nor the Emirati company announced the details of the deal, or concessions that each party would benefit from.
And the conclusion of the deal to grant the “Umm Al-Tunisi” international airport in Mauritania to the company “Abu Dhabi Airports”, requires the presence of an Emirati delegation that secretly arrived in Mauritania, and held secret meetings with a number of Mauritanian officials that were completely kept away from the lights of the media.
The deal gives Abu Dhabi Airports the right to use Nouakchott International Airport for a period of 25 years, with concessions, while Mauritania will receive only 5% of all services provided by the Emirati company.
The opposition parliamentarian, Mohamed Ould Mohamed Ambarak, considered that the extradition of Nouakchott International Airport to a foreign company is an extension of a series of corruption carried out by the Mauritanian government, which began to hand over the port of friendship in Nouakchott to another foreign company, without presenting it to Parliament to say its word in the people’s money.
Ould Mohamed Ambark said that “handing the airport to an Emirati company without being approved by Parliament is a dangerous precedent, and the summit of corruption and manipulation of public interests, especially public institutions that went between bankruptcy and assignment to the foreigner,” asked: “What remains of public institutions?”.
He stressed that accountability will be directed to the government about the deal, pointing out that Parliament was supposed to discuss such deals and reveal what related to them, adding that the handover of Nouakchott International Airport to a UAE company is a “bid of those who do not have those who do not deserve.”
The Mauritanian Minister of Economy and Finance, Mukhtar Ould Ajay, justified the ratification of the contract of assignment of the airport, which took place last Tuesday, as a foreign direct investment, which will reflect positively on the country, and will enable the airport to become a gathering point for travelers like many airports in the region, which will ensure significant returns for the country, by operating hotels and selling fuel that uses planes as well as Mauritanian airlines.
He said that the agreement includes relinquishing existing airport services, and the Emirati company will take over the development of services to enable the airport to play the role played by similar airports.
Concerning the financial aspect of the agreement, the minister revealed that it grants the Mauritanian state ownership of 5% of this company, including all the facilities that it will undertake in the future, which gives the state what corresponds to this percentage of annual profits without participating in the capital of the company.
