Mauritania and Algeria sign media cooperation agreement

Algeria’s national news agency APS and its Mauritanian counterpart AMI signed a cooperation agreement, a step viewed by officials from both countries as a predecessor to enhanced cooperation.

AMI said its general manager Yerba Ould Sghair and his Algerian counterpart Abdelhamid Kacha signed an agreement in Algiers on Sunday for the development of cooperation in all relevant fields.

AMI explained that the agreement “expands the old agreement between the two agencies to include new fields”.

However, Mauritanian independent newspapers viewed the agreement as a hidden message conveyed from its government to Rabat signalling that the crisis of confidence between Mauritania and Morocco is ongoing.

One Mauritanian newspaper said: “The Mauritanian government has decided to send a diplomatic message to Morocco signalling a lack of confidence between the two states.”

It noted that since the Mauritanian authorities stopped the work of the Moroccan press agency MAP‘s correspondent in Mauritania, the government decided to seek signing a cooperation agreement with Algeria.

Relations between Morocco and Mauritania were severed nearly three years, while the MAP correspondent’s work was suspended in 2011.

At the time, the Moroccan authorities expressed their deep regret regarding Mauritania’s decision; describing it as unjustified and unprofessional and saying it does not reflect the nature of relations and cooperation between the two countries.