New Mauritanian PM faces food crisis and terrorism threat

by Hamedine Ould Sadi Wed May 7, 3:04 PM ET

NOUACKHOTT (AFP) - The new Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf has a difficult task ahead leading the northwest African state recently shaken by deadly attacks by groups linked to al-Qaeda and touched by the food crisis.

The new prime minister, appointed Tuesday, will have to "take charge of this difficult situation, especially the terrorist threat which the public find worrying," Moussa Ould Hamed, director of the daily independent newspaper Biladi (My Homeland) told AFP Wednesday.

Until recently largely untouched by terrorist attacks, Mauritania was shaken between December and February by three deadly attacks from extremists linked to Al-Qaeda which left seven people dead including four French tourists.

The attacks caused the organisers of the 2008 Dakar rally to move the famous race, which usually crosses the Mauritanian deserts, to South America.

Skirmishes between government forces and extremists to the north of the capital Nouakchott in early April also left two extremists and one policeman dead.

In April the Mauritanian government cracked down on extremists, arresting some 20 suspected Islamic radicals including the suspected killer of the French tourists, Sidi Ould Sidna.

"On top of having to deal an important blow to terrorism Ould Ahmed Waghef will have to put a lot of effort in to counter the current food crisis," according to Elghoth Ould El-Arbi, professor of economics at the Nouakchott university.

Mauritania, a vast desert country, is especially touched by the rising world food prices as it imports almost 75 percent of its food needs.

The new prime minister will have to implement the ambitious plans of the Mauritanian president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, announced this Monday, to make the arid country largely self-sufficient in food.

African governments have been nervously confronting a mounting wave of often deadly social unrest caused by the soaring cost of food and fuel.

There have been riots in Mauritania, and other west African countries including Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

Mauritania is comparable in size to Egypt with an area of more than a million square kilometers (nearly 400,000 square miles), approximately three quarters of which is desert or semi-desert.

Most of the population of 3.1 million still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood.

Ould Ahmed Waghf, an economist considered to be a confidant of Mauritania's president, has some experience in this field. He was in charge of the government's emergency program to deal with the food crisis.