The Mauritanian Journalists’ Union held a solidarity seminar at its Nouakchott headquarters on Monday evening, 26 October 2020, concerning journalist Ishaq Ould El Mokhtar, who had been missing in Syria for seven years.
Union President Mohamed Salem Ould Dah said that throughout his career in Mauritania and abroad, Ould El Mokhtar had been an example and model of a skilled and experienced journalist. He noted that the Union’s founding meeting had been held in the offices of Ould El Mokhtar’s private media production company.
The Union President called on Sky News to take responsibility towards Ould El Mokhtar, whom it had sent on an official assignment to Syria, noting that the channel had not addressed his case since he disappeared seven years earlier.
Dr Abderrahmane Ould Horma, Chair of the Unified Committee for Coordination and Follow-up on Ishaq Ould El Mokhtar’s case, said that available information indicated that Ould El Mokhtar was in a prison on Syrian territory.
Ould Horma welcomed diplomatic efforts to raise awareness of his case and called on the government to do more so that Ishaq could return safely to his family.
Bar Association President Ibrahim Ould Ebety said that he had presented Ishaq Ould El Mokhtar’s case to President Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani, who had received the Bar Association Bureau a few days earlier.
Ould Ebety added that the Mauritanian Bar Association was concerned with the case because Ishaq was a Mauritanian citizen and a journalist detained while carrying out his duties. He affirmed that the Association continued to follow the case.
The seminar was attended by the wali of journalist Ishaq, the Bar Association President, the Chair of the National Human Rights Commission and a group of journalists.
