MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Mauritania and the UAE’s Expanding Influence in the West African Sahel OE Watch Commentary: In the past year, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened its ties with the governments of Mali and Niger in the West African Sahel, through a combination of financial and security assistance. In July 2019, the UAE pledged one billion UAE Dirhams (approximately $270 million USD) in financial assistance to the government of Mali; in January 2020 it began delivering dozens of armored vehicles to Malian security forces. In Niger, rumors surfaced last summer that the UAE was negotiating to establish a military base; the negotiations were purportedly put on hold in September 2019 and have not been reported on since. Emirati moves to expand its influence in the West African Sahel come amidst a recent uptick in jihadist attacks, particularly in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The bloodiest so far this year was a mid-January ISIS attack in Niger, near the Malian border, that killed at least 89 government soldiers. More recently, the UAE has focused on deepening Map of the Sahel. Source: Munion via Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Sahel.png, CC BY-SA 3.0 cooperation with the new Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, who took office in August 2019 and made an official visit to Abu Dhabi in January 2020. The UAE’s ties to Mauritania have deeper roots than those with Niger and Mali, partly because Mauritania is the only one of those three countries where Arabic is a widely spoken, official government language (albeit a different dialect than in the UAE). Mauritania is known for producing quality Islamic scholars, and as the accompanying excerpt explains, many of them have ended up in Emirati mosques. Under Ghazouani’s predecessor, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania joined the UAE in the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen and the 2017 boycott of Qatar, though its contributions to both have been mostly symbolic. In 2016, Abu Dhabi financed the construction of a military education campus next to Nouakchott University, which was named the Mohamed bin Zayed Defense College in a nod to its benefactor. In January 2020, Abu Dhabi pledged $2 billion for investment and development projects in Mauritania. Some media outlets reported that discussions had also taken place for the UAE to build a military base in north Mauritania. Although the rumor was officially denied by the Mauritanian government, it gained traction among media outlets opposed to Emirati foreign policy. According to the accompanying excerpt from Arabi21, expanded Emirati security cooperation with Niger, Mali and Mauritania has raised some eyebrows in Algeria, which shares a border with all three of those countries. Emirati policy in the Sahel may mirror its approach to Yemen, which was characterized by pragmatism in its dealings with local forces and a focus on securing a foothold in strategic and resource-rich locations. The Sahel countries, sub-Saharan Africa’s gateway to Europe, possess significant untapped mineral wealth. Over the past few years, the UAE (specifically Dubai) has emerged as one of the largest importers of unrefined African gold from several Western African countries, including Mali. Much of it is smuggled out of Africa without government approval, and jihadist groups appear to be increasingly involved in the artisanal gold industry. End OE Watch Commentary (Winter)
“Mauritania denied hosting an Emirati military base on its soil…”
OE Watch | March 2020 48 MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Continued: Mauritania and the UAE’s Expanding Influence in the West African Sahel
موريتانيا واإلمارات.. عـالقـات تتجـدد :Source “Mauritania and the Emirates… Renewed Relations,” al-Khaleej, 3 February 2020. http://www.alkhaleej.ae/alkhaleej/page/2b1bcfaa-0be6-487d-a9fa- ae1f371cc219
Sheikh Zayed, may God have mercy on him, paid close attention to the great Mauritanian excellence in the field of Islamic sciences and Arabic language. He was keen to embrace Mauritanian legal scholars and judges who enabled the Maliki school, which is the official doctrine of the Emirates. This followed cooperation in various fields, and there were Mauritanian police missions that continue to serve Emirati security, with some personnel still serving there today. Many Emirati mosques are led by Mauritanian imams.
موريتانيا تنفي إنشاء اإلمارات قاعدة عسكرية عىل أراضيها :Source “Mauritania Denies Construction of Emirati Military Base on its Territory,” Anadolu Agency, 30 January 2020. https://tinyurl.com/wm6k7ad
On Thursday [30 January], Mauritania denied hosting an Emirati military base on its soil. The official Mauritanian news agency quoted an unnamed source in the Ministry of Defense as denying what he called “rumors which were covered by the media a few days ago about the establishment of the UAE military base north of the country.” The source added that “Mauritania has close fraternal relations with the UAE based on the principle of common interests and cooperation in all fields, including military cooperation.”
هل تسعى اإلمارات للتواجد يف شامل أفريقيا لدعم “حفرت”؟ :Source “Does the UAE Seek a Presence in North Africa to Support Haftar?” Arabi21, 1 February 2020. https://tinyurl.com/sgcfbfd
… the Algerian newspaper “Patriotique Algérie” recently revealed that “the Abu Dhabi government is seeking to establish a base and a military airport in northern Mauritania near the southern border of the state of Algeria.” The newspaper described the Emirati move as an “attempt to encircle Algeria and a threat to its national security”… Ali Mounir Douala, an Algerian researcher in international relations, stressed that “Algeria constantly rejects the idea of foreign military bases not only on its territory, but also in neighboring countries such as Libya and Tunisia to the east, and Mali, Niger, and Mauritania to the south. Its recent position regarding Emirati activities, if it is indeed true, will come from these principles”... Moroccan researcher and academic, Noureddine Lachhab, pointed out that “the UAE is not able to put pressure on Algeria now, because the latter is still going through a transition, and the Algerian people are still mobilized. Even though the Algerian political system has a military background, the army is a national army and not one of mercenaries, like some armies in the Arab east, who live on American aid and dominate the economy…
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OE Watch | March 2020 49