The Mauritania Internet Exchange Point (RIMIX) will be launched on 27 November 2015 in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The IXP is expected to be formally inaugurated by his Excellency Mr. Moctar Malal DIA, Minister of Employment, Professional Training and New Technologies and Moctar Yedaly, Head of the Information Society Division of the African Union Commission. The institute for the Development of Digital Infrastructures, the Association for the management of the RIMIX and the Internet Society will also be present at the opening ceremony.
The Mauritania IXP was established with the support of the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS), a project of the African Union, which was implemented by the Internet Society. AXIS organized an IXP best practices workshop in Nouakchott from 18-19 February 2013 where senior officials from the Ministry of Employment, Professional Training and New Technologies as well as more than 50 experts participated, followed by a hands-on technical training workshop for more than 12 specialists, from 06-10 October 2013.
The AXIS Regional Internet Carriers (RICs) and Regional IXPs (RIXPs) workshop for the Northern African region also took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania from 8-12 June 2014. The RIXPs and RICs workshop convened governments, regional organizations and experts to discuss the best approach for developing RIXPs using a natural growth path from local IXP that grows into a Regional one. The workshop further adopted and reached agreements on a number of decisions regarding the establishment of Regional ICs and Regional IXPs according to the needs of the Region. This collaboration between interested parties is expected to lead to positive results for the sector and various countries.
We believe that the RIMIX will serve as a catalyst for innovation and development of Internet services and applications in Mauritania, and that it will support Government efforts to implement E-government services and lower the cost of developing local hosting and application development. The presence of this IXP will improve local Internet resilience by eliminating the dependence on international connectivity for local Internet services and Internet-based communications.
The Internet Society will continue its support to ensure that the new IXP grows to exchange greater amount of traffic in the near future.