• According to a note from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called Resilience and Roadblocks: The Abraham Accords at Five Years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly met with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani on the occasion of his visit to the White House, on July 8, 2025. Mauritania was participating in the U.S.-Africa summit at the time. The meeting would have focused on a possible accession to the Abraham Accords.

☞ This episode was made public at a time when several Arab states were questioning their participation in the agreements and Israel seeks new partners. It stressed that the two heads of state and government enjoyed cordial relations, but revealed that Mauritania also had relations with Hamas.

☞ Mauritania’s stance comes as spokesman for the former Wagner Group in Africa Alexander Ivanov presented Mauritania as the hub for Ukrainian weapons and special forces in Africa to the Tass agency in August. According to him, this country already controls all terrorist groups in the Sahel.

In addition, then undersecretary of state for political affairs Victoria Nuland announced in May 2022 at the Marrakech anti-terrorism summit that the next war on terror would take place in the Sahel.

Finally, in November 2023, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed the massive influx of US weapons initially intended for Ukraine into the hands of jihadists in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin.

The transfer of Ukrainian weapons has already been noticed in Burkina Faso, Somalia and Libya. The Wall Street Journal also noted the presence of Ukrainian Special Forces alongside General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan in Sudan, while others mentioned them with the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda. Ukraine has publicly claimed its presence in Mali. Regarding Sudan, the media Al-Rakouba had mentioned the recruitment of Colombian mercenaries who are being trained by the Ukrainian Special Forces in Moldova under the cover of the Forward Observations Group (FOG) and would be present in the two Sudanese parts of Generals Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dogolo (aka "Hemedti").

Algerian security services, meanwhile, denounced another network, that of Muslim Brother Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, head of the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU), as having played a role in the transfer of Ukrainian weapons to Algerian jihadists.

This is the editorial from our paywalled "Voltaire, international newsletter", n°143. For more information, do not hesitate to subscribe: 500€ per year.

Translation
Gregor Fröhlich