DR ‹ › The Mauritanian authorities have mandated the swift evacuation of gold prospectors operating within a ten-kilometer radius of the borders with Morocco and Algeria. This directive, formalized by a decree issued on Wednesday, January 21, grants prospectors a week to comply, as reported by a Nouakchott-based media outlet. The announcement was made by Idrissa Demba Koureira, the governor of the Tiris Zemmour region, during a joint field mission with Colonel Cheikh Sidi Bouya Salek, commander of the Second Military Region. Their inspection tour spanned several artisanal gold mining sites in the Amregai and Kouirat areas. This decision arises from a troubling security environment, recently highlighted by clashes in northern Mauritania between gold prospectors and armed factions of the Polisario Front. These incidents have reignited concerns over potential security destabilization in this particularly sensitive border region. The governor explained that the evacuation is intended to enable the Mauritanian army to effectively perform its duties of surveillance, border security, and safeguarding the nation's territorial integrity. He underscored the purely security-driven and preventive nature of this action. This evacuation effectively undermines the Polisario's strategy, which involves using Mauritanian-registered vehicles to disguise its militias as gold prospectors. These elements infiltrate Moroccan territory to launch attacks on Moroccan positions west of the Sand Wall. This directive follows a decision from last May, when the Mauritanian army sealed off the Lebriga region near the Algerian border, close to the Tindouf camps. Notably, on January 6, 2021, the Council of Ministers, chaired by Mohamed Cheikh Ould El Ghazouani, adopted a bill establishing a «sensitive defense zone» in the country's north. «The project defines the coordinates of the land reference points marking the boundaries of this zone, located in the sparsely populated north, which could serve as a corridor for terrorists, drug traffickers, and organized criminal gangs», stated the Mauritanian government in a release.
