AU/Senegalese Mission Arrives in Nouakchott

(PANA)--Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade arrived Thursday in Nouakchott, leading a joint Senegal/African Union mission to mediate the political crisis in Mauritania since the 6 August 2008 coup.

The mission comprises the chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping; Libyan governmental representative Ali Triki; chairman of AU peace and security council (CPS/AU) and other Senegalese officials, including the senior minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tidiane Gadio.

Gadio was in Nouakchott last week, during which he met all the stakeholders involved in the crisis and presented to them a plan to end the crisis. The plan included the release of political detainees, reopening of the candidacy lists for presidential election, setting up of a new elections commission and the formation of a national union government. On arrival, Wade held brief talks inside the VIP room of the Nouakchott International Airport with Mauritanian acting president Ba Mamadou, popularly called M’Bare.

Senegalese mediation aims to get all the stakeholders involved in the Mauritanian crisis to a round table discussion. Interested parties are the forces which back the candidacy of Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a coalition of six political parties, which has the majority in the two chambers of Parliament and is opposed to the 6 June presidential election; the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), which favours Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the overthrown president, as well as the main opposition Democratic Forces Union (RFD). The last two parties are opposed to the forthcoming presidential election.

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