Highlights
On 16 December, UNHCR in collaboration with WFP, held a consultative meeting in Nouakchott to introduce the 2016 Assistance Programme for Malian refugees in Mauritania and present the results of the recent Joint Assessment Mission conducted in Mberra camp. The meeting was the occasion for UNHCR’s Representative in Mauritania to stress the need for all national and international humanitarian actors to continue their joint efforts to strengthen people of concern’s self-reliance and work towards maintaining peaceful coexistence between the refugee and host communities.
In December, UNHCR facilitated the safe voluntary return for about 350 Malians, some of whom have lived in Mberra camp since 2012 as well as two urban refugee families who voluntarily returned to Bangui, in the Central African Republic.
Thanks to the kind donations of the clothing company UNIQLO and the United Arab Emirates, close to 3,000 among the most vulnerable refugees in Mberra camp, received a full set of clothes and about 5,000 received date fruits in December.
To strengthen peaceful coexistence between refugees and their host community, UNHCR completed important life-improving initiatives in the Bassikounou region near Mberra Refugee camp, such as wells construction and rehabilitation as well as fencing of arable land.
In order to strengthen self-reliance, UNHCR completed construction works for five community kitchens which will improve livelihood for Malian refugees in Mberra camp.
Operational Context
Violent clashes in northern Mali in early 2012 triggered important waves of displacements into Mauritania, where a refugee camp was established 50 Km from the Malian border in the Hodh el Charghi region. Following the military intervention in northern Mali in January 2013, new influxes of Malian refugees occurred, thus further stretching the limited resources available in the area.
In collaboration with the Mauritanian Government that has kept its borders open to new influxes, UN organizations and national and international NGOs, UNHCR leads the humanitarian response for 50,228 Malian refugees in Mberra camp.
In addition, the organization protects and assists 1,174 urban refugees and 502 asylum seekers, mainly from the Central African Republic, Syria, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Senegal.
Lately, violence in Northern Mali sparked new waves of displacements and 486 new arrivals in Mauritania have been registered in 2015, despite the signing of a peace agreement in Mali in June. Large-scale returns of refugees are therefore not yet envisaged and UNHCR and its partners are maintaining their presence in Bassikounou to sustain the humanitarian response at Mberra Camp.