Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani will on Tuesday take over from his Burkinabe counterpart, Roch Marc Christian Kabore as chair of the G5 Sahel, APA learned from the Communication Service of the Burkina Faso presidency.
By Alban Kini
According to the statement to APA on Monday, the handover between presidents Kabore and El Ghazouani will take place during the 6th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Heads of State of the G5 Sahel, which is scheduled for February 25, 2020 in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott.
The release specifies that “during his term, President Kabore, as a true ambassador for the G5 Sahel, has constantly challenged the international community on the need to combat the scourge of terrorism, together, by mobilizing substantial resources.”
It says that “from Ouagadougou to Abu Dhabi, via Yokohama, New York, Sochi, Addis Ababa, Biarritz .., the Burkinabe head of state carried the voice of the people of the Sahel, for greater solidarity from the international community”.
President Kabore was appointed on February 5, 2019 by his G5 Sahel peers to assume the chairmanship of the organization which groups Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.
The future president of the G5 Sahel, Mouhamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, had already stood out during the Peace and Security Forum in Dakar in November 2019, with a speech that still resonates.
“Any attempt to fight terrorism must resolutely integrate– if it is to succeed– the resolution of the Libyan crisis, in order to fight terrorism more effectively in the Sahel” he had emphasized to his peers.
The current president of the G5 Sahel has a one-year term.
Prior to the appointment of Burkina Faso’s leader, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger was on February 6, 2018 chosen to chair the organization after the heads of state summit in Niamey.
ALK/cgd/fss/as/APA