Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune began a visit to Mauritania on Monday, during which he will participate in an international conference on education and youth employment in Africa. Tebboune was received at Nouakchott Airport by his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, Anadolu Agency has reported. He is scheduled to participate alongside other African leaders in the two-day conference on Tuesday.
This is the first visit by an Algerian president to Mauritania in 37 years. The last such visit was in 1987, when the late President Chadli Bendjedid went to the Mauritanian city of Nouadhibou for the opening an oil refinery built with Algerian support.
On 22 February this year, Presidents Tebboune and El Ghazouani opened the first land crossing linking the neighbouring countries. The two presidents also gave instructions to start work on a road more than 700km long linking the Mauritanian city of Zouerat to Tindouf in south-west Algeria.
Mauritania and Algeria share a land border of about 460km, along which many smuggling and illegal trade networks operate.
READ: Algeria, South Africa insist on holding Israel accountable before ICJ