Mauritania: 75,000 Malians "stranded in the desert" in need of assistance, MSF alert

The war began in Mali in January 2012, when the Tuareg rebellion took the north before being supplanted by armed Islamist groups.

The French army intervened on 11 January to help the Malian government threatened disintegration, and continues its operations in the north.

The conflict has displaced more than 270,000 people within Mali. 170,000 others have fled to neighboring countries (mainly in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger), according to the UN.

In the Mauritanian desert where temperatures reach 50 degrees, the  Mabera refugee camp welcomes tens of thousands of unfortunates "stranded in the desert" in a situation which is "extremely precarious", the title of a report by MSF, driven by ethnic fighting,food insecurity and the collapse of basic services.

"This is a camp where over 75,000 Malians have sought refuge. (...) We take the allegations seriously," responded the spokesperson of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) United Nations, Melissa Fleming.

There is no famine in the Mbera camp says Marie-Christine Ferir, responsible for emergency response to MSF because generally "rations have improved, the food is enough now."

"Ethnic and political foundations"

But water scarcity: refugees receive an average of 11 liters per day, when their situation would require 20 for drinking, cooking and hygiene.

As for the children, "they should receive a diet of enriched milk and micro-nutrients not to fall into malnutrition," adds Ferir.

The children arrived at the camp in January were generally well nourished in the early days, but soon developed symptoms of malnutrition.

"It puts the lives of children at risk", warns Marie-Christine Ferir. Besides the risk of irreversible neurological sequelae and immune problems that can cause malnutrition among toddlers, their mortality rate has soared: "It is now above the emergency threshold, with a limit of two deaths of children under two years to 10,000 per day. It is 3.2 deaths per 10,000 children per day, "she says.

On average, two children aged 2 die every day Mbera, says MSF.

"Malnutrition in the Mbera camp is our main concern and has been for some time," said the UNHCR spokesman, adding that "further efforts have been made since the beginning of the year."

In its report, MSF insists that "aid organizations must maintain their response for as long as necessary."

Because "due to ethnic and political foundations of this crisis, it is unlikely to see the refugees return to Mali soon," said the NGO.

From the Tuareg rebellion in the early 1990s, the current conflict has crystallized the hatred between the majority black population and those it calls "white skin", Tuareg and Arabs are treated equally to rebel Tuareg and / or Islamists.

These "white skin" have often fled Mali (45% of those interviewed by MSF in the camp) for fear of reprisals from the local population or the Malian army. In Mbera camp, the majority of the population is Tuareg, also with many Arabs. "They will not move anytime soon" for fear of reprisals, "is what they tell us," said Marie-Christine Ferir who remembers that "after the rebellion of the 1990s, some remained several years ".

"I do not see how Mali will emerge from this crisis," she said.