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Join on Telegram Rabat – “We are determined to cooperate fully with our brothers in the five Sahelian countries to develop zones facing serious security threats that have an impact on the security of the entire region, including Morocco,”Head of Government Saadeddine El Othmani told Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
He said that Morocco had prepared a program that would be presented at the conference concerning its actions in the Sahel region.
Immediately after his arrival in the Mauritanian capital, the head of the Moroccan government held a one-on-one meeting with the Mauritanian Prime Minister Ahmed Salem Ould Bashir in the airport’s VIP lounge.
The Moroccan delegation is participating in this event as a partner country. The G5 Sahel countries are seeking Morocco’s expertise in several areas, such as the fight against desertification, water control and counter-terrorism.
El Othmani expressed Morocco’s determination on Wednesday in Nouakchott to strengthen its cooperation with the Sahel countries (Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger) who face serious security threats.
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This Thursday’s meeting is dedicated to the organization’s Priority Investment Programme (PIP) for 2019 to 2022. The PIP is used for implementing the G5 Sahel Development and Security Strategy (SDS) and is structured around the four strategic areas of intervention (Defence & Security, Governance, Infrastructure, and Resilience & Human Development).
Normally, it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs who represents the kingdom at Group meetings, as was the case in September 2017 in New York at an inter-ministerial meeting on “Security and development in a French-speaking region in solidarity” and in February 2018 in Brussels. Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita is participating in the Geneva roundtable on the resumption of negotiations on the Sahara.
On the orders of King Mohammed VI, El Othmani is leading a delegation to the G5 Sahel (GHS) conference that is held on December 5 and 6 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, according to a statement from the Head of Government Department.
The statement noted that this conference brings together a number of heads from both government and state, as well as representatives of donor countries to mobilize the necessary resources needed for the investment priorities program of the G5S countries.
This conference is the second conference for donors to G5S countries after the one held in Brussels last February, which raised $414 million for the G5 Sahel counterterrorism task force.
G5S is an institution for coordinating regional cooperation in development and security issues in West Africa. It was formed on February 16, 2014, in Nouakchott, Mauritania, at a summit of five Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
