The joint Mauritania-Morocco military commission held Monday, in Nouakchott, its second meeting to strengthen cooperation between both countries in the military and security field.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief of General Staff of the Mauritanian Armed Forces, Major General Mohamed Bamba Meguett, and the Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR), Lieutenant General Abdelfattah Louarak, who is visiting Mauritania.
This came amid tensions at the Guerguarat crossing, on the borders between two countries, which is located in a buffer zone guarded by United Nations (UN) forces within the Western Sahara region.
The meeting also comes after a three-day visit by Louarak to Mauritania leading a senior-level delegation.
Tensions at the Guerguerat border crossing escalated last October after operatives supported by the Polisario Front and Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra infiltrated into the region and disrupted the movement of civilians and commercial goods.
The armed forces also sought to obstruct the work of military personnel working with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
However, in late November, Morocco launched an operation at the Guerguerat crossing and lifted a three-week blockade imposed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Last month, Moroccan King Mohammed VI spoke held a phone call with Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Cheikh el-Ghazouani and discussed regional tensions. The two men also went over recent developments in Western Sahara and means of deepening cooperation between the neighboring countries.
