Mauritania sees Rabat meeting of UMA sectoral commission as start to reactivating union

Mauritanian commissioner of food security, Sidi Mohamed Ould Biya, said Friday the Rabat session of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) food security ministerial commission marks the start of UMA reactivation.

Upon return home after taking part together with Algerian, Libyan, Moroccan and Tunisian agriculture and food security ministers, the Mauritanian official said the Rabat session was a major step in re-activating all of UMA bodies, in conformity with the wish of the region heads of state and people.

He added that the meeting decided to set forth a work plan to implement decisions and agreements reached by the commission and craft a strategy meant to achieve integration and cooperation in food security.

The 10th session of the Maghreban food security commission, held this Feb.7, voiced the five member countries' commitment to guarantee food security and shield the Maghreban people against any harmful farming and food product. Recommendations will be submitted to the council of foreign ministers due to meet by mid March in Algeria -which holds the Union rotating chairmanship.

Last January, the five heads of state who met in Yaounde on the sidelines of the 21st France-Africa summit agreed to re-activate the UMA commissions. After the food security commission meeting in Rabat, three other commissions will be held in the course of February in three other Maghreban countries: human resources, infrastructure and economy and finance, respectively in Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya.

Set up in Marrakesh in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, the UMA has been frozen for years due to strained relations between member countries, especially between Morocco and Algeria over Algiers's direct involvement in the Sahara issue.