New Prime Minister for Mauritania

From Agence France Presse:

NOUAKCHOTT - Mauritanian Prime Minister Zeine Ould Zeidane resigned yesterday after just a year in office, a television channel in the northwest African state reported.

President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi "accepted this resignation and thanked the prime minister and the members of his government for their efforts and the work achieved," Mauritanian television said, citing a presidential statement.

Ould Zeidane, 42, was replaced by the economist and former minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, 48, it added.

It gave no explanation for the resignation, following criticism of the government by the president’s camp which has accused it of not representing the political parties that hold a majority in parliament.

Mauritania, a largely desert country, has been shaken recently by a food crisis fuelled by soaring food prices worldwide, and by deadly attacks from extremist groups.

Abdallahi had appointed Ould Zeidane in April 2007, the month after the president came to power following a transition to democracy after two years of military rule. The previous president had been ousted in a coup in 2005.

The new prime minister was formerly a university economics teacher and is president of the ruling PNDD party.

In Mauritania, the future's so bright, they gotta wear shades?

Mauritania’s first democratically elected civilian president in nearly five decades, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Cheikh, recently celebrated his first year in office. IRIN has an interesting piece on the changes he’s brought to the country and the obstacles he faces.

He has allowed long-banned political and religious associations, a very popular move. Islamist-leaning parties like Tawassoul and the Rally for National Reform and Development are now well established.

Cheikh campaigned for the post on a pledge to end slavery in the country, and signed that into law less than nine months ago. While it’s immediately hard to tackle such an institutional problem, at least one human rights campaigner gives him props for trying. Another bonus is thelong-standing issue of nearly 20,000 Mauritanian refugees living in Senegal has also begun to be seriously addressed.

His more limited success has come in the battle against corruption and modernizing the public sector. All this happens with the backdrop of Mauritania’s 2001 discovery of large oil deposits, which has yet to really pay off. The government recently estimated the unemployment rate to hover around 32 percent. Things are made worse by the world’s rising food prices, especially in light that sandy, dry and hot Mauritania can only grow 30 percent of the food stocks necessary to feed the population.

Adding more economic pressure to the country is what the Western media perceives as a growing terrorist threat, especially after four French tourists were killed and another wounded on Christmas eve by members of an Al-Qaeda linked terror group. The killings led to the cancellation of the Paris-Dakar rally, usually an economic boom for the country. In early February, gunmen attacked the Israeli embassy in Nouckchott, wounding three people. The tourism industry continues to suffer from the fallout of these attacks.

Another pressing issue is the pan-West African problem of drug smugglers using the long, deserted West African coastline as a port to transfer drugs to Europe. If smugglers, who rely on corrupt military and government officials, become entrenched in the country, it could lead to instability and lawlessness.

Mauritanian parties in power form new coalition

From Afriquenligne, with a new look for its website:

About 30 political parties in the ruling presidential majority in Mauritania have decided to form a new coalition to uphold the democratic achievements of President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi's regime, according to a statement released to PANA here on Monday.

The parties said in the statement that they supported the policy of the president and his government, which is faced with current challenges "to foster sustainable mechanisms of political change and the success of the reforms initiated" by the post-transition government.

The coalition regards the presidential election of March 2007 as a turning point in the political history of Mauritania.

The Mauritanian government has made the strengthening of democratic achievements, national reconciliation, social cohesion and improving living conditions for all the major planks of its policy.

The formation of the new coalition came amid rumours of an imminent cabinet reshuffle.

Mauritania: Two journalists detained; one remains in custody

From Menassat:

Two journalists working for the Mauritanian newspaper Assiraje were arrested on Tuesday night upon leaving the office. No legal warrants were served during the arrest.

The police took the two journalists to the National Security headquarters, where Sayyed Ould Abed al-Malek was realeased but Mohammad Salem Ould Mahmoudo remained in custody. Mohammad Salem is a contributor to MENASSAT.

Both are well-known journalists in Mauritania; no immediate reason was given for the arrests.

Bloggers union begins in Mauritania

The bloggers of Mauritania: One calls himself “Jesus of Mauritania” extolling Christianity; another “outs” people who are “thieves and spies”; a few provide a check on government power; one is a member of parliament; others still comment on social traditions and the role of women in society.

They now have a bloggers union.

Unlike some Middle Eastern and North African countries, the Mauritanian government has given these bloggers some leeway. (For example, the Yemen government recently blocked a popular blog platform that hosted more than 2,000 blogs.) I would argue in this instance Mauritanian government’s relationship with bloggers falls under the guidelines of other West African governments, which generally leave bloggers alone.)

From Menassat:

They are only a blip on the worldwide blogosphere but at least Mauritania's bloggers, all four-hundred of them, now have their very own syndicate, the Mauritanian Bloggers Union.

The union's media liaison, Mohammad Mawloud Ould al-Maaloum, said, "The new union is a congregation of a intellectuals, journalists and writers that decided that with more than 400 bloggers, it was time to meet."

He added that the Union "is trying to bring the bloggers together in the name of (blogger) unity," and as a means "to protect blogger rights."

Uniting Mauritania's bloggers is quite a challenge because of the diversity of the Mauritanian blogosphere. Some people blog in Arabic, others in French. More importantly, some bloggers are devout Muslims whereas others are critical of religion or show sexual content on their blogs.

The Mauritanian Bloggers Union is an attempt to unite all of them under the same banner, irrespective of political opinion of blogging methods.

"The reason behind the meeting of the bloggers is mainly to discussing the current status of the bloggers, and to choose the most efficient methods to enhance their presence and performance," the union's president, Ahmad Ould Islam, told MENASSAT.

As school enrollment increases in Mauritania, education standards fall

Photo by Ferdinand Reus

Weren’t we just talking about this? Mauritania is the latest country to make great strides enrolling more students in school, as prescribed the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, but has found that the country’s quality of education has suffered.

From IRIN:

"We have children in the sixth class who cannot read or write,” said Abderrahmane Mohamed Sidina, director of national education in Gorgol region, southern Mauritania, which covers 317 schools.

“Our schools have no books, no materials, and few teachers. Schools are not [creating] an environment that is conducive to learning."

Sidina blames the push to raise school attendance for the very large class sizes, inadequate teacher numbers and dilapidated equipment.

The story points out that schools lack books and teacher manuals, teachers don’t receive regular pay, and the government’s move to reduce the divide between French and Arabic education by creating bilingual schools as also met a roadblock: there are no qualified teachers to work in them.

Part of the problem is education has long been a low government priority, garnering 8.5 percent of the country’s budget in 2005. That shot up to 14 percent in 2007 and will be 20 percent over the next few years, UNICEF told IRIN. When schools received money, distribution was unequal and politically driven.

According to the World Bank, developing countries need to maintain a federal funding level of at least 20 percent for education to achieve universal primary education, which is MDG number two. Current sub-Saharan African countries average about 15 percent.

Slavery debate continues to haunt Mauritania

Slavery has been officially legal in Mauritania since 1981, and President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdellahi introduced legislation in August mandating prison time for those associated with its practice.

Crosswalk.com argues that international and national human rights organizations are raising concerns about the culture slavery in Mauritania. Others claim that slavery is so embedded in Mauritanian culture that completely bringing an end to it would be akin for Western countries to do away with racial discrimination.

"This is a deeply embedded practice in Mauritania, and it will take time to eradicate it," said [President of SOS Slaves, Mauritania's primary anti-slavery organization, Boubacar] Messaoud. But he said he was concerned about the pace of progress. "There have not been any cases in court, but there should have been."

He noted that the judiciary and police forces are complicit in the practice.

Messaoud added that human rights groups are pushing for affirmative action and non-discrimination laws, and "we are campaigning for the law to be strengthened particularly to enable NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and individuals to be able to have access and local standing to take cases on behalf of victims of slavery."

"Unfortunately, Mauritania doesn't have the resources to fully implement the legislation," [Mauritanian ambassador to the U.S., Ibrahima] Dia said. He added that [president] Abdellahi has "committed himself during his mandate [to] do all that he can to make sure that our country has made significant steps to the abolition of the [culture] of slavery."

One month in and refugees feel at home in Mauritania

From IRIN:

One month has passed since the first 102 Mauritanian refugees officially returned home after some 19 years in exile in Senegal. Before they left many said they feared local Mauritanians would resent them coming but those IRIN has talked with since they arrived said their fears are being allayed as they are being very well treated.

“Our welcome was warm and respectful,” said Mamadou Keita, 25 years old returnee who arrived on 29 January. Another returnee Binta Lero Sow, living six kilometres north of the town of Rosso told IRIN, “It is going well. We don’t need anything.”

A total of 30,000 Mauritanian refugees are still living in Senegal and Mali. Ethnic clashes in 1989 with Arab Moors living in neighbouring Senegal were behind the expulsion of black Mauritanians by the Arab-dominated government of former president Maaoua Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya.

The EU's fishy politics off the coast of Mauritania

From Reuters:

The European Union will renegotiate a fishing deal this month with Mauritania, its most valuable such agreement, and seek to pay the country less compensation due to the lower amounts of fish it takes.

The EU has signed more than 20 bilateral fishing agreements, nearly all with developing countries and mostly in Africa, that give the bloc a substantial extra supply of fish.

The deal with Mauritania is the largest and most valuable to EU countries, allowing 200 boats flying the flags of some 13 EU nations to catch many species in Mauritanian waters.

For that, the EU pays Mauritania 86 million euros ($125.8 million) a year, an arrangement that represents almost a third of Mauritania's national revenue.

Since the EU is not using all its fishing quota allowances, experts at the European Commission's fisheries unit want to lower them -- and pay less from EU coffers. After the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding last month that they would renegotiate terms, those talks should resume in late February.

However, the Commission aims to keep the overall value of the Mauritania deal unchanged since the Commission's development unit would probably step in to pay the balance, diplomats say.

But the European fishing industry is not as cut-and-dry as you’d expect.

From the Wall Street Journal, through Yale Global Online.

Wealthy countries subsidize their commercial fishermen to the tune of about $30 billion a year. Their goal is to keep their fishermen on the water. China, for example, provides $2 billion a year in fuel subsidies; the European Union and its member nations provide more than $7 billion of subsidies a year. Such policies boost the number of working boats, increase the global catch and drive down fish prices. That makes it more difficult for fishermen in poor nations like Mauritania, who get no subsidies, to compete.

The end result: African waters are losing fish stock rapidly, with ramifications both to the economies of Africa's coastal nations and to the world's ocean ecology. Over the past three decades, the amount of fish in West African waters has declined by up to 50%, according to Daniel Pauly, a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Boats for Migration

On Africa's coast, thousands of fishermen have been put out of work. Some have been using their boats to try to migrate illegally to Europe. The economic effect extends beyond fishermen to the many women who sell fish in markets in coastal communities.

Shifting global dietary patterns are partly to blame. A booming world-wide appetite for seafood has lifted the fishing industry's global production to record levels. Total fish trade grew to $71.5 billion in 2004, up nearly 25% from 2000, according to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, an office of the United Nations. "There are too many boats chasing too few fish," says Grímur Valdimarsson, director of the FAO's fisheries division.

Calm down: These locusts aren't so bad, says FAO

Regarding those locusts gathering in southern Mauritania: Hold on to your insect foggers because these critters are not so destructive as their cousins.

From IRIN:

“These insects are áboricole’or ‘tree locusts’, which pose no great harm to people’s crops, unlike the ‘pelerins’ or ‘desert locusts’”, which can destroy people’s livelihoods in a matter of hours, Keith Cressman, locust forecasting officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome told IRIN.

“The worst damage that tree locusts will cause there is to defoliate some of the region’s acacia trees,” he said.

Though tree locusts do not travel in big swarms like desert locusts do, the two types are often mistaken for one another, he added. Tree locusts are common in the Sahel region at this time of year.

A small swarm of desert locusts can eat as much food in a day as 2,500 people. In recent years, Mauritania has recorded regular locust outbreaks of desert locusts that destroy crops and pastures.

They're back? Locusts seen in Mauritania

A photo from 2004

Locusts have returned to Mauritania.

Swarms of red locusts invaded the south-western Mauritanian region of Chemama, near the border with Senegal, AMI reported on Saturday (February 9th). The mayor of the town of Keur Macene, Yaghoub Ould Moussa, was quoted as saying that the locusts first appeared on Friday, causing panic among the local population. In recent years, Mauritania has recorded regular locust outbreaks that destroy crops and pastures. Several donors, including the World Bank, sponsor projects each year to support populations threatened by the pests. The insects caused devastating damage in 2004.

The last sentence is something of an understatement. The 2004 season saw the worst locust attacks in West Africa in 15 years, disrupting the region's crops and food supplies. That year's invasion was brought on by higher-than-average rains in both West and North Africa and helped along by inaction from the former government in Mauritania once the winged-insects arrived.

Here is a story on the attacks in Burkina Faso, which is when the photo was taken (by a friend.)

Mauritania receives aid promise from France as Dakar Rally moves to safer shores

As French Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher promised more security aid to Mauritania, the Dakar Rally announced it will be leaving Africa for 2009 and take place in South America.

"Cooperation between our security services must be strengthened and Mauritania agrees on this," Reuters reported Kouchner saying. "The organisation al Qaeda is a threat to the world."

From Bloomberg:

The Dakar Rally will be hosted by Argentina and Chile in 2009 after this year's race was canceled because of security concerns following the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania, Agence France-Presse said.

The 6,000-kilometer (3,729-mile) race, overseen by France's Amaury Sport Organisation, will start and finish in Buenos Aires, AFP said, citing Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar Rally. It's scheduled for Jan 3-18.

The 29-year-old race, which traditionally starts in Europe before ending in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, had never been canceled before this year.

ASO decided against running this year's race after consultation with France's government. The four tourists, all from the same family, were shot Dec. 24 near Aleg, 250 kilometers east of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. There had also been threats to the event from terrorist groups.

Angry African on the Loose is not impressed. I can't say I blame him.

The Dakar Rally has always been proud of their commitment to Africa. They even included it in their values. It is a central part of their values. They mention Africa in their values more than 10 times! They talk about how the Dakar Rally should excite Africa and respect African people. And that the Dakar Rally plays such an important role in boosting Africa’s image. Wow, they must be committed to Africa. Imagine the damage to our image if they decided to hold it in another country. No, they won’t do that. They know how bad it would be and they love us too much to do something like that.

They write about it as if they truly believe in this relationship between Africa and Europe. That Africa is in their bones and in their blood. They say that “the 28-year old relationship between Dakar and Africa has now matured. It has blossomed from a friendship into an alliance between two adults who have decided to share in the work as well as the celebration“. Isn’t that nice words? Isn’t that nice, empty words? Looks like the engagement is off.

The first sign of trouble and they run to the hills. Trouble in Dakar? No. Trouble on the route along the way. But this is a weak excuse. The route has always changed to adapt to threats and developments. It’s just the ending that stayed the same -DAKAR!

Mauritanian refugees trickling home

Ever so slowly, Mauritanian refugees are beginning to return home from Senegal.

From IRIN:

Of the 35,000 Mauritanian refugees who settled in Senegal 18 years ago, 24,000 have expressed interest in returning home, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), although the Mauritanian government has said it is expecting 15,000 to 20,000 returnees.

After several delays to the start-date, and with many questions still remaining, 115 black Mauritanians who have lived in Senegal for over 18 years, returned home via Rosso a town in the south-east that borders Senegal on 29 January.

The governments of Mauritanian and Senegal are working with UNHCR to run the returns process in stages, starting with 20 families.

While UNHCR and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) will provide the returning refugees with blankets, mosquito nets, basic sanitation supplies and food for three months, after this they will be left to support themselves.

Moussa, a black Mauritanian from the capital Nouakchott, said that it is after the UN agencies leave that the difficulties might become more acute.

"The refugees have not received any concrete guarantees,” he said.

Mauritania squeezes money, promises out of World Bank

World Bank President Robert Zoellick traveled to Mauritania for a two-day visit with President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

From Reuters:

In a signal of support aimed at donors and private investors, Zoellick signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mauritanian government on the development of the country's mineral resources and still-growing oil sector, the expansion of Nouakchott port and exploitation of natural gas for electricity.

Zoellick’s week-long tour will also take him to Liberia, Ethiopia to attend an African Union summit and Mozambique.

School of rock: U.S. military to train soldiers in Mauritania

From Reuters,

U.S. Marines will train Mauritania's military in counter-insurgency tactics this month as the Islamic state straddling the Sahara confronts what diplomats see as an increased threat from al Qaeda.

Next week's arrival of the U.S. military instructors falls under Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP), which seeks to help African armies bolster their defences against possible Islamic militant violence.

Although scheduled, the American military training mission comes three weeks after two attacks in Mauritania -- one killing four French tourists, another Mauritanian soldiers -- attributed to al Qaeda members.

Color me unsurprised (but in a healthy way):

"If the Mauritanian government says it needs help in this capacity, you will probably see a receptive attitude from most of the West," one Nouakchott-based Western diplomat said.

Personally, I am much less cynical (and hostile) that most of my colleagues about the prospect of U.S. military training armies of other countries for a limited period of time.

Will the real Europe to Africa road rally please stand up?

It’s hard to keep a good road rally down. The Budapest-Bamako, Trans-Saharan Rally will begin as planned this weekend. The story is not the same for the Paris-Dakar rally, which was cancelled due to security concerns.

From PR Web:

The capital of Hungary will host the starting ceremonies of the third annual Budapest-Bamako, Great African Run on January 12, 2008. The 148 cars, motorcycles, trucks and buses will have to travel 8896 kilometers from Budapest before they reach the capital of Mali.

This year's event has a tense start due to security concerns in Mauritania. The 2008 Budapest-Bamako will spend 5 days in the troubled North African country. "The Bamako will go ahead as planned, however we have asked all participants to carefully evaluate the security situation before Saturday," said Andrew G. Szabo director of the event.

The event is a zero assistance, extreme endurance rally where teams have to rely on their own resources in case of emergencies. The event was originally created for those who have always dreamt of joining the Dakar, but never had the proper funding. The Budapest-Bamako offers all the thrills and spills of a true African driving adventure.

Speaking of those security concerns, a few weeks after four French tourists were shot in Mauritania, and a subsequent warning from Western governments to avoid the country, tourism is back on the front burner (so to speak).

From Afriquenligne:

Despite the threat of terrorism in Mauritania and the travel warning issued to their citizens by some countries, including France, tourists have continued to flock to the country, official sources told PANA here Monday.

"A group comprising 111 tourists arrived in the Adrar region in the country on Monday and another one was expected (later in the day),'' Crafts and Tourism Minister Ba Madine told the Parliament.

Finally, nine people appeared in a Mauritanian court in connection with the killing of four French tourists, the BBC reports.

Prosecutors in Mauritania alleged the suspects are linked to a group allied to al-Qaeda.

The tourists - apparently members of the same family - were shot by gunmen as they stopped for a roadside picnic.

A fifth person, said to be the father of the family, survived and has been transferred to Senegal for treatment.
…
The victims were initially reported to have been robbed, though the interior ministry now says they were not, the Associated Press news agency reports.

In their statement, prosecutors in Nouakchott said murder suspects were thought to belong to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - a group formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.

2007: The Year of Mauritania?

This investigation in the Arab Reform Bulletin on Mauritanian governance is a few weeks old, and I was going to introduce into a more thorough year in review regarding governance in Africa, but we’d most likely be ringing in 2009 before the larger piece ever saw the light of day.

Nonetheless, the story provides a good primer on current Mauritian politics, which is undergoing a process of wholesale democratization. On paper, at least, slavery has been outlawed; the government passed a law forcing senior officials to declare their assets; also, the government allows the press and media to work largely unmolested (it ranks 50 out of 169 countries in the Reporters Without Borders Freedom Index, the highest ranking for any Arab state.) However, the government remains shaky because most people suffer severally from a lack of economic choices, and long-term sustainable growth will continue to be a problem, which the author lays the blame on “deeply entrenched socio-economic challenges.”

The government, which inherited a troubled, corruption-ridden economy, has placed high hopes on the recent discovery of oil. Mauritania began oil production in February 2006, but output is so far lower than expected. The Chinguetti field is currently producing around 20,000 barrels per day, not the projected 75,000 barrels. Lower production levels also afflict the fishing industry, and agricultural production is vulnerable because of unstable weather conditions. Manufacturing industries also suffer due to unreliable power supplies. While oil-driven economic growth in 2006 was 11.7 percent, non-oil GDP growth was only 4.1 percent, marking a decline from the 2005 rate of 5.4 percent. According to the World Bank, Mauritania's income per capita in 2006 was only $740, while the inflation rate was 29.8 percent.

Yet a further challenge to democratic consolidation in Mauritania are the socio-economic divisions arising from the country's complex ethnic composition, which includes Arab White Moors (Bidan), former Black Moor slaves (Harratin), and Afro-Mauritanians. Despite the president's pledge to promote national unity and equality, the country's African population continues to suffer from a historically disadvantaged socio-economic position exacerbated by the continuation of slavery practices, illiteracy, and weak central government institutions.

Perhaps it’s the oil, or the government’s commitment to reform (or both), but the country is becoming more skillful securing foreign aid. The World Bank recently promised $1.14 billion in credits and grants; U.S. economic aid is slated at $5.23 million for 2008; And a group of Middle Eastern and European countries recently penned a $2.1 billion, three-year investment program.

These economic issues, along with the attempted refugee repatriation and reconciliation of the country’s ethnic groups, catapults Mauritania to the top of the list that ranks West Africa’s most fascinating countries. All in all, I think Mauritania became one of the most compelling stories of the past year.

Mauritania launches new airline

Mauritania Airways, which kicked off Monday, is 51 percent-owned by Tunisair, an independent Mauritanian group and the Mauritanian government will control 10 percent, according to Magharebia.

The new airline will introduce two flights per week from Nouakchott to Bamako, Dakar, Abidjan, Conakry, Casablanca, Las Palmas and Paris.

Representatives claim they hope to begin service to Jeddah and Dubai.

Homeward bound? Mauritanian refugees in Senegal may be going home

It began as a simple border dispute between two countries. It ended with the expatriation of 50,000 people, all of them black, all from Mauritania, a strangely multi-ethnic society split strictly along ethnic lines: 30 percent of the population is from Arabic (or Moorish) descent, 30 percent claim black-African descent and 40 percent make up a mix of the two.

The whole affair has been called Africa’s most protracted refugee crisis. It seems, however, it might be on the road to being solved.

The problems began on the boundary waters of the Senegal River, where villagers from both Mauritania and Senegal use the fertile lands to graze animals. Groups of black Mauritanians and Senegalese had long argued over the land and tensions were starting to rise during the spring of 1989. Fighting broke out after two Mauritanian border guards allegedly shot and killed two Senegalese herders. The two countries nearly went to war over the situation, and a peace deal was sought with both sides agreeing to expatriate villagers from the area in hopes of minimizing the tensions.

A purge by any other name
This decision allowed the Arab-controlled Mauritanian government of dictator Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya to begin what Human Rights Watch called a “systematic expulsion of thousands of black Mauritanian citizens to Senegal.”

Taya’s decision to exile the villagers wasn’t merely about maintaining peace, says Human Rights Watch. They, and other human rights organizations, have long claimed the Arab-dominated Mauritanian government used the conflict as an excuse to purge black-Mauritanians from the civil service and other parts of Mauritanian society. “The tension dates from the colonial era, when blacks who led a more settled life were able to take greater advantage of educational opportunities and thus dominated the administrative structure,” Human Rights Watch says in this report: “Since independence, political power has remained in the hands of Arab and Berber Mauritanians, called "beydanes," who have sought to purge blacks from major institutions and to effect the arabization of the country.”

Over the next 20 years, roughly half of the exiles returned home. The rest survived in refugee camps. They were joined in Senegal by another roughly 60,000 expatriates, mostly black Mauritanians, fleeing Taya’s harsh rule.

Taya was overthrown two years ago, and the new government, elected in March, called for the refugees to return home. A recent UNHCR survey counts 24,000 refugees living in 250 locations within Senegal hoping to return to nearly 50 communities in Mauritania, spread across four regions. (Mauritanian refugees also live in Mali, but the two countries have yet to meet to decide their fate.)

Because of “limited absorption capacity” and infrastructure problems of the Mauritanian communities, UNHCR says it will plan to repatriate only up to 7,000 refugees by the end of 2007. Others will return next year. The repatriation program will be responsible to attempt to improve the infrastructure and welfare of the communities receiving the refugees. Health and education sectors will be targeted for greater development as will programs to increase agriculture and animal husbandry incomes.

However, Reuters reports that some refugees claim they will not return home without compensation for lost jobs, land and houses. They have also called for trials against those responsible for the purges.

Not so fast
The biggest obstacle facing the returnees is land, says a human rights group that claims to represent some of the Mauritanians living in Senegalese camps. This point was underscored, the group says, by the recent arrest of six refugees who returned to Mauritania nine years ago. IRIN reported that the six were incarcerated stemming from a land dispute with villagers of Arab descent. The region’s governor disputed the land claim, saying they six were arrested for using axes and sticks to threaten the police officers called to mediate the situation.

A collective of human rights groups representing refugees pointed out that the governments of Mauritania and Senegal have not yet signed the agreement with UNHCR over the repatriation of the refugees. Until that happens, they would like to hold off on repatriation – even with pirogues waiting to transport refugees on the Senegal River and trucks ready on the Mauritanian side.

"We really do not want UNHCR and the Senegalese government to rush this repatriation without the reassurances that the return to Mauritania will meet all the conditions set out by refugee associations," including reparations and assurances of safety, a spokesman told IRIN.