Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi has held bilateral discussions in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, with French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who is in Mauritania for an official visit, according to news from official Mauritanian News Agency.
In a statement issued at the end of the meeting on Wednesday, Alliot-Marie said that she had taken the opportunity to express France's recognition and admiration to the Mauritanian president for the good work that was being carried out by the country's security forces in the fight against international terrorism.
The minister, who is also in charge of the overseas territories and local governments dockets, said that the Mauritanian police and gendarmerie forces had demonstrated great skill and the total commitment, which led to the arrest of the alleged murderers of four French tourists in Mauritania.
Alliot-Marie was referring to a late December attack which occurred when a group of suspected terrorists sprayed automatic fire on a group of French tourists in Aleg, southwestern Mauritania, leaving four of them dead and another one seriously injured.
Following the attack, the deadliest against foreigners in the moderate Muslim West African nation, the security forces backed by French intelligence officers, launched one of the largest manhunts across the region managing to nub two of the suspects in the neighboring Guinea-Bissau.
The two, who have since been extradited to Mauritania together with the third attacker who was recently arrested in the capital Nouakchott, are awaiting trial in connection with the murders, according to judicial sources.
During our meeting, "we discussed," said the minister, the mounting risks that we are jointly running and which justify the implementation of measures to strengthen our cooperation and forger even closer ties between the two countries.
"This is more so given the terrorist threat that continues to remain real throughout this region and also the whole of Europe," according to the interior minister.
In the wake of this scenario, the French minister stressed the need to "strengthen our ties in terms of intelligence gathering and analysis of the situation and our capacity to work together," according to the official media.
Further, the minister called for cooperation in tackling other challenges such as the issue of drug trafficking networks, which is "a big problem for our country and which also requires joint action."
In addition to holding discussions with high-ranking government officials, Alliot Marie, who arrived in Nouakchott Wednesday, is scheduled to take part in the 13th Conference of Interior Ministers of Western Mediterranean Countries slated for May 21 and22.
Source:Xinhua
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