Mauritanian leader may use graft probe to cement power

Significance

Since leaving office last year, the former leader has been marginalised by his successor and erstwhile ally, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. Despite an array of challenges (COVID-19, flooding and Mauritania’s current chairmanship of the G5 Sahel), there is no sign of compromise.

Impacts

• Tentative efforts by Ould Abdel Aziz loyalists to establish a new political movement will peter out.
• Genuine efforts to reclaim lost public wealth would entail a lengthy and complicated process.
• Ould Ghazouani will remain under pressure to deliver on promises of reform and inequality reduction.