Commissioner Damou
Director General Ould Hademine
Ladies and gentlemen

I have the pleasure to inaugurate, with you, a project for the benefit of communities situated along the SNIM rail corridor.  These communities are divided among the three willayas of Nouadhibou, Adrar, and Tiris Zemour. Funding for the project will be more than 115,000,000 ougiyas ($422,000). This inauguration marks a new era of fruitful cooperation between the Food Security Commission, SNIM, and our Embassy.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The importance of these projects resides in the fact that they are the result of the joint efforts of the Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP), funded by the US Department of Defense, and the Food for Progress program, funded by the US Department of Agriculture.  HAP facilitates all US Department of Defense humanitarian assistance.  To date HAP has facilitated the construction of many humanitarian projects throughout Mauritania.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This cooperative partnership between different US and Mauritanian institutions is of first importance, for it will serve as a locomotive of development for those communities along the rail corridor.  It will not fail to have significant repercussions in the daily lives of those living in that zone.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Before finishing, allow me to offer my thanks to our partners in this undertaking, CSA and SNIM, for the efforts they have made to make possible our being here today on the occasion of the launching of this project.

Joseph LeBaron
United States Ambassador to Mauritania
Nouakchott, July 27, 2006.