Nouakchot (Mauritania) was the location chosen to celebrate the first monitoring committee meeting for the GAR-SI Sahel project, a project funded by the European Commission. The project is being managed by FIIAPP as the lead partner working with other European cooperation agencies supported by the work of experts from various national security forces in Europe, including the Grupo de Acción Rápida  (Rapid Action Group, GAR) of the Spanish Guardia Civil.

During the committee meeting, the documents prepared during the first phase of the project, the situation analysis, were validated and approved.  This meeting gives a green light to the next phase of implementation and to the creation of a unit of agents of the Grupo de Acción Rápida (GAR) of the Guardia Civil who will work in coming years on implementation of the project in Mauritania.

The committee was co-chaired by the chief of staff of Mauritania’s Gendarmerie Nationale, Major General Soultane Ould Mohamed Souad, and the Head of Delegation of the European Union to Mauritania, José Antonio Sabadell.  Representatives of FIIAPP and the Guardia Civil also attended.

Security in the Sahel

GAR SI SAHEL arose as a response to the instability in the Sahel zone (Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Chad). Specifically the project seeks to address the problem of irregular migration and the creation of terrorist groups in the region.

To accomplish this task, the various national security forces (the Guardia Civil of Spain, Carabinieri of Italy, Gendarmerie Nationale of France and Guardia Nacional Republicana of Portugal) will send units to the different countries in the region to work hand in hand with their counterparts in the targeted countries. The GAR unit of the Spanish Guardia Civil will work in Mauritania and Niger and support the work of the Carabinieri in Mali.