Today (Friday), Mauritanian Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Ajay submitted the resignation of his government to President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani, less than twenty-four hours after the president received the report of the investigation committee into the two fires at the two electrical transmission stations in Nouakchott, a report that placed responsibility on senior levels in the government apparatus.
Ould Ajay left the presidential palace with a brief statement, in which he announced that “the successes that have been achieved throughout this period are due, first and foremost, to the clarity of the directions that His Excellency has been directing us with, his constant keeping up with the work he has undertaken, and the dedication and sacrifice of the government and administrative teams.” Adding: “And of course there was any deficiency, that is my responsibility.”
The Prime Minister began his statement by saying: “I was honored a short while ago to have a generous meeting with His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mohamed Ould Sheikh Al-Ghazouani, and during this meeting I presented to His Excellency the resignation of the government.” He stressed that receiving the President was “an opportunity to express to His Excellency my sincere and sincere thanks for the precious trust he bestowed upon me by assigning me, since August 2, 2024, to coordinate government work.”
Ould Ajay praised the president's "sound guidance, constant support and accompaniment, and generous understanding throughout this period." He thanked “all the distinguished ministers and all the administrative teams with whom I had the honor to work,” and congratulated them for “the great effort and great sacrifices they made, and the remarkable results they achieved,” in implementation of the president’s program “and in service to our beloved country.”
He concluded with a phrase that suggested that the page on his government had been turned: “I wish the new government good luck and success, and our beloved country further development and prosperity.”
The Prime Minister did not mention the reasons for the resignation, nor did he mention the investigation committee report. The presidency has not yet issued anything indicating that the resignation was accepted, or that the government was assigned to manage the ongoing work, or the date of appointing a successor to Ould Ajay.
* From crisis management to resignation
Just hours before the resignation, Ould Ajayi was at the forefront of managing the power station fire crisis, as he accompanied the head of the investigation committee, former Minister Ousmane Mamoudou Kan, to deliver the report to the president (Thursday). He then chaired the meeting of the ministerial committee charged with managing the crisis, during which he congratulated the government sectors for “restoring service in record time.”
The Prime Minister announced at the same meeting that the President “immediately committed the government” to implementing the recommendations. These recommendations include administrative procedures “according to the schedule of responsibilities” contained in the report, “legal follow-ups” against every violation, and publishing the report “in full transparency” for public opinion.
The table of responsibilities did not stop at the contractor and the consulting office, but rather rose in the government hierarchy to the Minister of Energy and Oil, who recorded “deficiencies in the system of following up and monitoring the agreement, and in supervising the structures charged with its implementation.” It also included the Secretary-General of the Ministry, the Director-General of Electricity, and the former and current General Directors of the Mauritanian Electricity Company (SOMLEK), in addition to the procurement committees.
Two fires broke out on August 21 and 22 in the capital's eastern and northern substations, causing a power outage in large neighborhoods for periods ranging between three and five days. The report estimated the direct cost at more than 220 million new ounces, in addition to 143.9 million ounces for the rehabilitation of the two stations.
The report linked the two fires to three new electrical connections, the deal for which was assigned to a company described as “unqualified,” and which were operated despite the reservations of the consulting office. He recommended that the deal be annulled, and that the “challenged authenticity” certificate submitted by the company be referred to the judiciary.
* The third Prime Minister during the Ghazouani era
Ould Ajay was appointed Prime Minister on August 2, 2024, with the start of President Ghazouani’s second term, after serving as Director of the Office of the President of the Republic. His government made two amendments during two years and two months in power. He is the third Prime Minister during the Ghazouani era, after Ismail Ould Badda Ould Cheikh Sidiya and Mohamed Ould Bilal.
The resignation opens the door to the formation of a new government whose first task will be to implement the report’s recommendations, including restructuring “Somlak” and clarifying its financial relationship with the state.
Political circles in Nouakchott are awaiting the name of the next Prime Minister, and whether the new government will bring about changes that affect the sectors referred to in the report.
On Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi began a visit to Malaysia, the second stop of his Asian tour after South Korea, followed by Indonesia as a third stop in order to “advance relations and enhance political and economic cooperation.”
Al-Sisi arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday, where he was received by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Noordin, and a number of Malaysian officials.
On Friday, President Sisi left the Korean capital, Seoul, heading to Kuala Lumpur, where at the conclusion of his visit to Seoul, he held talks with his Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, and they agreed to “raise bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership.”
The Malaysian news agency Bernama, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported on Friday that “Malaysia and Egypt established diplomatic relations between them in 1959, and since then the two countries have maintained friendly and distinguished relations, supported by close cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral levels.”
The agency reported that “the Egyptian President’s visit is expected to contribute to strengthening the historical partnership between the two countries and raising the level of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership.”
During talks with the Malaysian Prime Minister in Cairo in November 2024, President Sisi agreed to “advance bilateral relations as an incentive to ensure further progress and development for both countries,” as well as “further strengthen political relations by increasing the frequency of exchange of high-level visits between the two countries.”
The Secretary-General of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ali Al-Hafni, believes that “President Sisi’s visit to Malaysia is an impetus for relations and an enhancement of the path of cooperation, whether politically or economically.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Egyptian President made more than one tour to East Asia and Southeast Asia, and his visit was the first to Malaysia, and before that to South Korea, then Indonesia. This indicates relations with Asian countries and enhances bilateral cooperation, especially since Malaysia has experience in the field of development. There is a lot that Egypt can benefit from.”
Al-Hafni points out, “During the visit, the President was keen to meet with officials in the economic and investment sectors, as well as businessmen, in order to present the priorities of the Egyptian development agenda and investment incentives, which stimulates cooperation relations with Malaysia, especially in the economic, trade and investment fields.”
The Malaysian Foreign Ministry indicated, according to what was reported by the official Middle East News Agency in Egypt, on Friday, that “Egypt ranked seventh among Malaysia’s largest trading partners on the African continent during the year 2025.”
She explained that “the total volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached 3.08 billion Malaysian ringgit, equivalent to 720 million US dollars.” She continued: “Malaysian exports to Egypt recorded 2.55 billion ringgit, equivalent to 600 million dollars, while imports from Egypt amounted to 530 million ringgit, equivalent to 120 million dollars.”
Al-Hafni confirms that “Egypt is proud of its Asian relations, which are ancient relations, and the cultural aspect of them represents great importance, especially since there are large numbers of students from Southeast Asian countries studying in Egypt.”
He also points out, “There is an interest regarding Egypt’s foreign policy in communicating with leaders and senior officials on the Asian continent, because consultation regarding regional and international situations is an issue that Cairo is keen on, and it is interested in exchanging views and listening to the assessments of these countries regarding various issues, and coordination in confronting regional and international challenges.”
During a phone call with the Malaysian Prime Minister, in February 2025, President Sisi stressed “the necessity of intensifying international efforts to establish a Palestinian state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as this is the only guarantee for achieving permanent peace in the region.”
According to the Egyptian Information Service, the Asian tour aims to “advance bilateral relations and enhance political, economic and investment cooperation between Egypt and the three countries.”
The Authority stated, on Thursday, that the successive presidential visits to Asian countries reflect “Egypt’s keenness to diversify its external circles and strengthen its relations with rising economic and political powers, thus providing broader opportunities to attract investments and increase trade exchange and cooperation in the fields of technology, energy, transportation and education.”
Lieutenant General Saddam Haftar, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army, considered that completing the unification of the country’s police institutions “represents an urgent national necessity, requiring serious work and practical steps that strengthen the unity of the police institution and the integration of its efforts, and ensure that it fulfills its responsibilities in serving citizens.”
Saddam Haftar said, coinciding with the 62nd anniversary of the founding and unification of the police institution in Libya, on Thursday, that “the General Command’s continued support for the police institution comes within the framework of a national vision to modernize security institutions, develop their capabilities, improve the efficiency of their cadres, and employ modern technologies in performing their tasks.”
The Libyan police were unified on October 8, 1964, through a royal decree merging the security services in the three regions of Libya (Cyrenaica, Fezzan, and Tripoli) under one national leadership.
Saddam stressed “the importance of giving members of police institutions the care and attention they deserve, improving their job and living conditions, raising the level of their salaries and financial benefits, commensurate with the nature of their tasks and the gravity of their responsibilities, and actually implementing the provisions of the law regulating their affairs and rights, in a way that enhances their readiness and effectiveness.”
Saddam recalled “the nation’s martyrs, members of the police, who gave their lives in sacrifice for the security of their country and the safety of its people,” and said that “their sacrifices will remain a source of pride and honor, and their memory is immortal in the conscience of the nation, and their families and loved ones have sincere appreciation and gratitude.”
Saddam had met with members of the Reconnaissance and Special Operations Battalion of “Major General Tariq bin Ziyad Al-Muazzaz,” after completing advanced training courses in a number of countries, which lasted 14 months. In this context, he said that the training and qualification they received “represents an important addition to them and the armed forces, and enhances their readiness to carry out the tasks assigned to them efficiently and competently,” stressing “the necessity of continuing to make more efforts and maintaining this level of readiness and discipline.”
In the capital, Tripoli, the Ministry of the Interior of the Interim Government of National Unity held a celebration on the occasion of the anniversary. Minister Imad Trabelsi said that commemorating this occasion comes “in commemoration of the march of the police institution and its unification in the three regions of Libya, and in appreciation of the giving of its pioneers and retirees,” noting that “the development achieved in the Ministry of Interior came as a result of teamwork and the solidarity of its various components.”
He stressed "redoubling efforts to combat smuggling and irregular migration, rejecting any form of resettlement of immigrants, and continuing to confront with all determination anyone who harms the security of the state, the safety of citizens, and the capabilities of the nation."
The celebration witnessed the honoring of a number of police retirees, pioneers of the institution, pillars of security training and rehabilitation, and professors and doctors who contributed to teaching the students of the Police Officers College, in appreciation of their giving and their role in building and qualifying generations of policemen.
Coinciding with this anniversary, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya facilitated the meeting of the Joint Technical Coordination Team for Border Security, which was hosted by the Ministry of the Interior of the “Unity” government, with the participation of 45 military and security officers from various parts of Libya, along with a number of employees of the “joint centers” for communication and information exchange in Tripoli and Benghazi.
The UN mission said, on Thursday evening, that this meeting “constitutes an additional important step towards strengthening cooperation between eastern and western Libya in the field of border security,” highlighting that the participants reviewed “the progress made towards activating the two joint centers, and agreed to implement joint field missions to secure the borders.”
The meeting came after organizing a specialized training course in Tripoli during the period from 4 to 7 October, targeting employees of the two joint centers, and dealing with communications security and reporting. The course was organized in light of the commitments made by the Army Chiefs of Staff to activate the two joint centers and enhance their ability to perform their tasks.
Representatives of military and security bodies from all over Libya had previously agreed, on October 28, 2025, to allocate a location for the Joint Center for Border Security and Information Exchange in Benghazi, as a step towards unifying Libyan security institutions.
The opening of the center was then supervised by the joint technical coordination team, which was selected with the assistance of the UN mission in January 2025.
The coordination team had established a similar information-sharing center in Tripoli in April 2025. The two centers are supposed to work together to enable information exchange and support unified responses to challenges related to border security.
The Joint Technical Coordination Team is the first body that brings together senior military and security officials, who represent the “National Unity” government and the “National Army” in Libya, to address all issues related to border security.
