NOUAKCHOTT, February 8. /TASS/. Russia and Mauritania are alarmed by tensions in the Sahara-Sahel region, where efforts need to be joined to combat incidents of terrorism which have not subsided, but are even on the rise, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday after his meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.

"We spoke about Africa’s problems. We, like our Mauritanian counterparts, are concerned about escalating tensions in the Sahara-Sahel region, where it is necessary to join efforts for a more effective fight against occurrences of terrorism, which have not gone away but are even growing to some extent," he said.

According to the Russian foreign minister, they also touched upon the Western Sahara issue.

"Russia was a member of the Group of Friends of Western Sahara, which was drawing up practical steps to implement the existing resolutions of the Security Council. However, this issue is currently on hold. We believe it necessary to get back to an active search for concrete steps to break the deadlock and promote a settlement based on the existing decisions of the UN Security Council," Lavrov said.