Mauritania Opens 18 of 28 Nouakchott Health Centres, With Ten Still Pending

Mauritania's president inaugurated the first phase of Nouakchott's emergency development programme on 5 November, but the government's own account says only 18 of 28 planned health centres were completed. The remaining ten are unfinished: five are expected to be completed during the coming month, while work on the final five is more than 80% complete, according to the Mauritanian News Agency's 5 November account. This is a count of reported construction progress, not independent verification of patient services at every facility.

The figures matter against the government's earlier opening preparations. On 20 October, the state news agency said President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani had chaired a meeting to evaluate progress and preparations for putting all 28 health centres into service. The November update confirms a narrower milestone, not completion of the full plan.

Contract trouble had already been acknowledged. On 17 October, Prime Minister El Moctar Ould Djay announced the termination of contracts for five delayed health-centre construction projects and a process to select replacement contractors, according to Mauritanian local reporting. At that time, officials said 15 centres had been received by a government committee and 12 transferred to the Health Ministry. Handover to a ministry, construction completion and actual opening to patients are different milestones.

The 5 November state account does not identify the contractors whose agreements were terminated, the original contract prices, new tender IDs, payments or damages. It does not establish that the five cancelled contracts correspond exactly to the five projects whose works were more than 80% complete at the latest briefing. Delays alone do not prove fraud or misappropriation.

The first phase of the wider city programme covered education, health, water, sanitation, electricity and roads, with a stated total contract value of 69 billion old ouguiyas (MRO). That programme-wide value is not a health-centre budget, an amount paid for the unfinished centres or a proven loss. Officials launched a second development phase at the same event.

The next records to check are the five termination decisions, original and replacement tender awards, certified completion and handover dates for each of the ten remaining centres, and health-service readiness records including staff, medicines and equipment. Any follow-up should report measurable openings or corrective actions, not repeat the inauguration announcement.