Has Faki Mahamat discussed with Ould Abdelaziz a potential settlement for the Sahara conflict ?

Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission is currently on a visit to Nouakchott. The Mauritanian capital hosted on Tuesday morning a meeting that brought President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz and the Chadian politician together. Mahamat’s trip to the Maghreb country was primarly to attend a consultation meeting on the G5 Sahel, an institutional framework for coordination of regional cooperation in development policies and security matters in west Africa. The meeting will be held Wednesday and Thursday in the Mauritanina capital.

Speaking to the Mauritanina news agency, AMI, Faki stressed that the this meeting will «allow all contributers to set up a more consistent and realistic roadmap, taking into account each other’s experiences».

Preparing for the next AU summit in June

No doubt that the G5S was not the only subject the two men spoke about during their meeting. The two leaders could not avoid discussing the upcoming African Union summit to be hosted by Mauritania in June.

The summit will be a key event, not only for Morocco but also for Moussa Faki Mahamat. At the end of the AU 30th Ordinary Summit, held in Addis Ababa in January, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission announced that AU head of state will have to draft a «detailed report» on decison 653, taken at the summit held on July the 3rd and 4rth, 2017.

The document, which was to be handed to AU presidents last January, focuses on the «measures and initiatives» that Moussa Faki Mahamat «will take, alone or in partnership with the United Nations, to find a solution for the Western Sahara conflict», said the resolution.

Three months before the summit, it seems that Mahamat has spent months working on this new roadmap for the Western Sahara dispute. On the 12th of March, and after visiting Algiers, Chad announced that it is intending to «submit a report on the modalities of the African Union’s contribution to the conflict, within a framework that goes hand in hand with the African Union and the UN Security Council’s resolutions».

After Mauritania, Moussa Faki Mahamat will have to consult Morocco and the Polisario next. A week ago, a senior official at the Front said that Mahamat should visit Rabat and the Tindouf Camps, a piece of information that has not been confirmed yet.