Guinea returns to OMVS three months after walkout

Guinea has returned to Organization pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal (OMVS), a regional bloc for the development of Senegal River that including Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, after suspending its membership in July 2023, in protest to the neglect of its strategic interests.
The country’s interim Prime Minister Bernard Goumou attended the online extraordinary Summit chaired by Mauritania’s President Mohamed Cheikh Ghazouani.
Ghazouani reportedly recalled the importance of unity within the organization and participation of every country for the development of the region in the interest of the people.
Guinea walked out of the organization in July arguing that its strategic interests, such as the Koukoutamba hydroelectric dam in the Labé region of northern Guinea, have never been taken into account.
Guinea authorities also slammed the delay in the execution of the project valued at $812 million. The OMVS and Chinese export and import bank Exim inked a deal in 2019 for the financing of the project.
Exim has reportedly pulled out of the initiative but has never been replaced. The dam, if completed, is expected to produce 294 megawatt of electricity and will be the biggest project ever implemented by the OMVS.
Guinea also chided the regional organization for inequality within the staff. Goumou in July said Guineans were six, under-represented, as opposed to distribution between other nationalities.
He also argued that Guinea was a founding member of the OMVS’s mother organization “Organisation des États riverains du fleuve Sénégal (OERS)” before pulling out in 1971 for political reasons.
The OMVS aims at managing the Senegal River basin.