Cablegate: Senegal: Gadio Visits Mauritania

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PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1442 3531526
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181526Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1591
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 001442

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DEPT FOR AF/W

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SG MR
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: Gadio Visits Mauritania

On December 15 Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidjane Gadio led
a diplomatic mission to Mauritania for talks with military junta
chief, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and ousted President Sidi
Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. According to the National Front for
the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), a national alliance of parties
which favor the return of President Abdallahi to power, the subject
of the meeting between Gadio and the deposed president, which took
place at Abdallahi's home some 250 kilometers east of the capital
Nouakchott, was the friendly bilateral relations between the two
countries. Local press is reporting that Gadio was dispatched to
Mauritania at the behest of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to
obtain information about the country's state of affairs. It is
further being reported that since the return of Gadio to Senegal the
military junta has announced that it will release President
Abdallahi from house arrest on December 24.
BERNICAT

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