Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani arrived in Paris on Wednesday for a three-day state visit — the first of its kind for a Mauritanian head of state — with meetings covering bilateral ties, migration, and Sahel security. His programme includes talks with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, visits to the National Assembly and Paris city hall, and a trip to Brest to tour shipyards and the Ifremer (France's national ocean research institute), before a business forum on Friday. The visit underscores Mauritania's growing strategic importance to France and the EU as one of the last French allies in the Sahel following diplomatic ruptures with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, and as a key partner in Europe's efforts to curb irregular migration — a role that human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, say has come at the cost of serious abuses against migrants by Mauritanian security forces.