The Ongoing Struggle of Mauritanian Refugees in Senegal and Mali
Stateless and Forgotten
For over three decades, tens of thousands of Black Mauritanians have lived in exile, forcibly stripped of their citizenship, land, and identity. Expelled during the 1989–1991 Mauritania–Senegal Border War, they fled to Senegal and Mali, carrying little more than the trauma of lost homes and shattered lives. Today, despite multiple repatriation efforts, over 60,000 refugees remain stateless, abandoned by the very country that once called them its own.
The Mauritanian government declared repatriation closed in 2012, effectively sealing their fate in exile. While local integration and naturalization programs were introduced, these efforts have moved at a painfully slow pace, leaving many refugees in legal limbo, deprived of basic rights and economic opportunities. Most continue to live in refugee camps, disenfranchised, forgotten, and voiceless, while their homeland erases traces of their existence.
This is the story of a people robbed of everything, yet still fighting to be seen, to be heard, and to return home.
Historical Context
Ethnic Cleansing in Mauritania (1989-1991)
The 1989-1991 Expulsions
The 1989 crisis, known as “The Events,” was sparked by a minor border dispute over grazing rights in the Senegal River Valley. But it quickly spiraled into an ethnic purge, fueled by deep-seated anti-Black sentiment within the Mauritanian government. In Senegal, Mauritanian-owned businesses were looted, and Mauritanian nationals were attacked and expelled. In retaliation, Mauritania’s government turned against its own Black citizens—those from the Fula, Soninké, Wolof, and Bambara ethnic groups—stripping them of their citizenship and branding them as foreigners.
What followed was a campaign of terror. Black Mauritanians were rounded up, their homes burned, their lands seized by Arab-Berber elites, and their families herded onto deportation trucks like cattle. An estimated 70,000 people were forced to flee to Senegal and Mali, leaving behind their entire lives.
Among those expelled was Abdoulaye Sow, who still remembers the horror of that night.
“If your home was nice, even if you were Mauritanian, they would break in and kill people.”
For decades, Mauritanian authorities have justified these expulsions, falsely claiming that Black Mauritanians were not true citizens but Senegalese nationals. The expulsion was not an accident. It was ethnic cleansing disguised as border policy.
The Failure of Repatriation Efforts
UNHCR’s 2007-2012 Voluntary Repatriation Program
In March 2007, Mauritania’s newly elected government signaled an opportunity for change, inviting refugees to return. In collaboration with Senegal, UNHCR, and refugee leaders, a voluntary repatriation program was launched, aiming to return and reintegrate 24,000 refugees by December 2008.
But the repatriation program was riddled with failures. Refugees were excluded from decision-making, given little information about their rights or what awaited them upon return. A hastily conducted census left some families unregistered, further complicating their status. Many returnees discovered that the promises of land, homes, and citizenship were lies.
One such case was Abdoulaye Diop, a former police chief, who had once believed in the system. He served Mauritania faithfully—until the state turned on him.
“Even in the police, there was segregation between whites and blacks. When we arrested black people, they were beaten and ill-treated, while white people were not treated like that.”
Diop’s loyalty was not enough to protect him. When he questioned why Black detainees were treated with such cruelty, he was reported to his superiors.
“Then they arrested me.”
He was tortured by his own colleagues, who rubbed tobacco into his eyes, blinding him. He fled into exile, knowing that if he returned, he would not survive.
By April 2009, only 10,000 refugees had been repatriated, and in 2012, Mauritania officially closed the repatriation process, leaving thousands stranded in Senegal and Mali—without citizenship, without land, and without a future.
The Land That Was Stolen
At the heart of this struggle is land. The 1983 land reform law allowed the Mauritanian government to seize all land, disproportionately targeting Black farmers in the Senegal River Valley.
Among those forced to watch his land disappear was Hammeth Dia, now a leader in the refugee camps.
“The land my forefathers had toiled was being overrun, and there was nothing I could do about it.”
Arab-Berber speculators and government elites gobbled up stolen land, using force to drive out Black landowners. Those who resisted were met with guns, arrests, and deportation.
A Plea for Justice
For over 35 years, Mauritanian refugees have lived in exile, stripped of their citizenship, denied their land, and cast aside by their own country.
How much longer must they wait?
Their voices Abdoulaye Diop, Moustapha Toure, Hammeth Dia, and Abdoulaye Sow are testimonies of pain and survival. They are witnesses to ethnic cleansing, victims of a government that took everything from them. But they are also resilient, refusing to be erased.
The world cannot remain silent. Mauritania must be held accountable for its crimes.
- Legal Recognition – Full citizenship rights, national ID cards, and passports.
- Land Restitution – The return of stolen property.
- Reopening of Repatriation Programs – Safe and dignified return for those who wish to go home.
- Justice for Victims – Prosecution of those responsible for war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
As Kofi Annan once said:
“It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.”
Legal and Identity Barriers
Statelessness is a life sentence of exclusion. Mauritania revoked the citizenship of expelled refugees, refusing to recognize them as nationals. Attempts to integrate refugees in Senegal and Mali have moved at a painfully slow pace.
- In Mali (2018), only 4 out of 1,500 targeted refugees were naturalized.
- In Senegal (2017), just 5 out of 165 applicants were granted nationality.
Without legal documentation, refugees are locked out of education, healthcare, and employment, forever outsiders in the lands they fled to.
“We are Muslim, we have nothing against Arabic. But in Mauritania, they are using Arabic to dominate us.”
— Moustapha Toure, a refugee
Language was another weapon used against Black Mauritanians. Arabic was elevated as the sole language of government and education, erasing French-speaking Black Mauritanians from public life. Their voices were silenced, their history rewritten.
Justice is not a favor, it is a right. The time to act is now
Facilitate the safe and dignified return of Mauritanian refugees
For over 35 years, Mauritanian refugees have lived in exile, stripped of their citizenship, denied their land, and cast aside by their own country.
How much longer must they wait?
Through peaceful petitions and movements, we aim to end discrimination and seek accountability for the horrific massacres that took place between 1989 and 1991:
- Denounce the ongoing discrimination and apartheid-like system imposed on Black communities in Mauritania.
- Repeal Amnesty Law 93.23, which protects those responsible for crimes committed since 1989, and ensure these perpetrators are brought to justice.
- Investigate and locate all mass graves across Mauritania to provide truth and closure for the families of victims.
- Facilitate the safe and dignified return of Mauritanian refugees currently living in Senegal and Mali.
