Widespread Extrajudicial Executions
28 Lives Hanged on November 28, 1990, as Families Mourn While Others Celebrate
On November 28, 1990, the 30th Independence Day of Mauritania, a horrifying tragedy unfolded in the military camp of Inal, where 28 Black Mauritanians were hanged in a racially motivated act of violence. This atrocity, committed under the regime of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, turned a day meant for unity and freedom into one of terror and division. The victims, mostly soldiers, were falsely accused of plotting against the state. Before their execution, they endured brutal torture, including beatings and starvation. The hangings were not just acts of punishment but a calculated message of intimidation from the Arab-Berber ruling elite to the Black Mauritanian population. The Inal massacre became a chilling symbol of the ethnic oppression and systemic racism that defined this dark chapter in Mauritania’s history.
While families of the victims mourn their loved ones each November 28, demanding justice and accountability, others celebrate the nation’s independence, deepening the wounds of those affected. To this day, the Mauritanian government has refused to acknowledge the massacre, shielding the perpetrators and denying justice to the victims’ families.
This tragedy is part of a broader wave of repression during which over 600 Black Mauritanians were killed, many buried in mass graves across the country. The Inal massacre remains a powerful reminder of Mauritania’s unhealed divisions, as the fight for justice, recognition, and reconciliation continues.
Ethnic Targeting and Impunity
Extrajudicial killings are often preceded by patrols and house searches, during which the Hal-pulaar are targeted. Incidents such as the mass execution in Woyndouyoli show the systemic nature of this violence. In Woyndouyoli, villagers were bound, tortured, and later killed. Security forces and militias operate with complete impunity, their actions uninvestigated and unpunished. The lack of judicial oversight enables an environment where civilians are executed without evidence, trial, or cause.
We are all victimsEnforced Disappearances and Collective Punishment
In many instances, villagers arrested during military operations simply disappear. The fate of individuals, such as the 16 people arrested in Diery village near Boghe in March 1990, remains unknown. Families of the disappeared face intimidation and threats, further silencing calls for accountability. Entire families have vanished. In Gourel-Amadou Mamadou, security forces took a family of eleven. They were never seen again. These disappearances are part of a broader campaign of collective punishment aimed at displacing entire communities.
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Torture and Cruel Treatment
Torture Method use
A Climate of Fear and Forced Displacement
The armed and security forces make intensive and consistent use of the “jaguar” torture (where the victim’s wrists and feet are bound, they are suspended upside down from a bar, and the soles of their feet are beaten) when interrogating Hal-Pulaar villagers (see photographs above). Amnesty International has continued to receive numerous accounts of the use of the “jaguar” torture, which derives its name from the French combat plane used in Mauritania during the Western Sahara war, in which Mauritania was involved between 1975 and 1979.
Gorel Ba, a 55-year-old farmer from the village of Gourel-Mamoudou, was arrested at M’Bome at the end of April 1990 together with about 10 others.
Whole families have “disappeared” in the Selibaby region. At Gourel-Amadou Mamadou, near Ould Yenge, Adama N’Diaye, aged 50, his wife Salamatou Sow, known as Boolo, and their nine children were arrested by the security forces and taken into the bush in February 1990. They have not been seen since. In November 1989, 27 inhabitants of Mouta-Ala, near Ould Yenge, including Harouna Diaw and Djibo Mody Djabou, were arrested by soldiers after Peul stock breeders from the Aftout region had fled to Mali.
The fate of these people is unknown, as is that of 12 inhabitants of Nebya, near Ould Yenge (Selibaby), who were arrested in the same week by soldiers. In February 1990, soldiers based at Ould Yenge are alleged to have taken away inhabitants of Guelewol (Ould Yenge). In the Selibaby region, dozens of Hal-Pulaar villages have been forcibly evacuated following operations by government forces and militia. Some villagers have been deported, while others have fled from persecution. Some villagers who were arrested have simply “disappeared.”
Demanding Justice for Mauritania's Lost Generation
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