Mauritanian president receives personal envoy of UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara

Nouakchott, 16 September 2023 (SPS) - Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani received, on Thursday evening in Nouakchott, the personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, as reported by the Mauritanian News Agency (AMI).

The meeting took place in the presence of the Mauritanian Minister in charge of the President's Office, Mokhtar Ould Djaye, the Presidential Mission Officer, Ahmed Ould Bahini, the Acting United Nations Resident Coordinator, Kinday Samba, and the Head of the Office of the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Michael Kontah, according to AMI.

The United Nations had announced in early September that De Mistura would undertake a tour of the region to conduct consultations on the conflict in Western Sahara, prior to the Secretary-General's report to the UN Security Council in October.

The UN envoy first visited the occupied Sahrawi territories and then held separate consultations with the two parties to the conflict, namely the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front.

On Wednesday, he was received in Algiers by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, with Algeria and Mauritania being two observer countries in the UN-led process.

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