APA – Conakry (Guinea) Created in 1972, the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) groups Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
Three months after suspending its membership of the organization, Guinea is making a comeback. Led since September 2021 by a military junta, it justified its withdrawal by the fact that Conakry is under-represented within the West African organisation. Its intransigence has finally paid off, as the post of Deputy High Commissioner of the OMVS is now occupied by the candidate proposed by Guinea.
The decision was taken on 19 October at the second extraordinary session of the OMVS, organised by video conference and chaired by Mohamed Ould Cheick El Ghazouani, the president of Mauritania. In addition to Guinean Prime Minister Bernard Goumou, Mali’s junta head, Colonel Assimi Goita, and Senegalese President Macky Sall took part in the meeting, which was aimed at examining the organisation’s current situation.
In addition to the decision to grant Guinea the post of Deputy High Commissioner of OMVS, the heads of state issued guidelines committing the organisation’s Council of Ministers to “expedite as soon as possible a study to examine the modalities of Guinea’s participation in the other companies of the system: SOGED, SOGEM and SOGENAV.”
Following the instructions of the heads of state, the technical managers of the OMVS will also have to speed up the process of mobilising funding for the organisation’s structuring projects.
These include navigation, the construction of the Koukoutamba and Gourbassi hydroelectric schemes, energy transmission networks, access to drinking water and the development of food security activities.
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