Malians ‘caught in the crossfire’ flee to Mauritania

Mbera, Mauritanie (AFP):

Thousands of Malians are fleeing to the Mbera refugee camp just across the border in Mauritania as security in the country becomes untenable.

Central Mali is a hotspot of the violence that has metastasised across the Sahel, leaving thousands dead and millions displaced.

Mbera serves as a haven not only from fighters affiliated with Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group (IS) but also from inter-communal reprisals and violent criminals.

Opened in 2012 not long after Mali’s conflict began, the camp is one of the largest in the Sahel, hosting more than 78,000 people. Some 8,000 Malians have fled there this year, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

Violence, initially confined to the north, spread to the centre of the country in 2015, and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso. Mauritania has so far been able to stem the expansion.

Mali’s ruling junta has brought in Russian operatives it describes as military trainers, while Western countries describe them as mercenaries from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group.

Rights monitors have implicated “white-skinned” fighters in massacres in central Mali in March.

The UN says it has opened an investigation into the alleged summary execution of numerous civilians by Malian soldiers “allegedly accompanied by foreign security personnel” in Hombori on April 19.