Activities of Secretary-General in Mauritania, 3-5 March
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Nouakchott from Ouagadougou on Thursday evening, 3 March. He was welcomed by Isselkou Ould Ahmed Izid Bih, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
On Friday morning, the Secretary-General attended a town hall meeting with United Nations staff. He told them how proud he was of the work they were doing in Mauritania on the Sustainable Development Goals. He particularly singled out the staff working in difficult conditions outside of Nouakchott.
He then had a bilateral meeting with the country’s President, Mohamed Abdel Aziz.
Immediately afterwards, the Secretary-General spoke to the press. He said he was in the region to discuss the situation in Western Sahara, noting that later in the week he would be visiting the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and speaking with Saharan refugees.
The Secretary-General noted that he and the President had also discussed their shared concern about the volatile security situation in the Sahel. While addressing security issues, the Secretary-General added that countries should also “focus on the root causes of instability: poverty, unemployment, weak governance, social exclusion, discrimination and impunity for human rights violations”.
The Secretary-General also congratulated the Government for its efforts to end slavery, with the recent adoption of a law against the practice, and he encouraged its full implementation.
The Secretary-General also noted Mauritania’s hospitality in taking in Malian refugees fleeing violence in their own country.
The Secretary-General then had separate meetings with Prime Minister Yahya Ould Hademine and the Foreign Minister.
Accompanied by the Minister for Health, Boubacar Kane, the Secretary-General visited Nouakchott’s oncology centre, the only medical service of its kind in Mauritania. The state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre has been open since 2011 and offers free treatment to its patients.
The Secretary-General continued with a visit to Nouakchott’s Mother-Child Hospital. The hospital, opened in 2009, was created to focus on treating mothers, adolescents and children by providing obstetric and neonatal emergency care to women, as well as reproductive health services for youth and adolescents. It also manages cases of morbidity associated with childbirth, including obstetric fistula.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, the Secretary-General said he was moved and impressed by the dedication of the staff. He pledged the United Nations team’s continued support to Mauritania’s efforts to tackle the health challenges facing women and girls.
The United Nations country team hosted a working lunch in honour of the Secretary-General and his delegation. Following that, he met with representatives of civil society, including human rights organizations.
Later that afternoon, the Secretary-General delivered a speech entitled “Peace and Security in the Sahel: Tackling the Root Causes of Instability”. He noted the “triple peril” being faced in the Sahel — environmental degradation, poverty and insecurity. He applauded the Group of Five’s decision to establish a regional cell in Nouakchott for the prevention of radicalization, which he said would complement his own Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism. (See Press Release SG/SM/17575.)
That evening he was hosted to dinner by the Prime Minister.
Mr. Ban departed Nouakchott for Tindouf, Algeria, early on Saturday morning, 5 March.