34 years after their arrival, they are part of the scenery. They have fully integrated. The Mauritanian refugees who have settled along the Senegal River, where their children were born, grew up and went to school, have their heads turned towards the North: they know they are not at home, even if they and their offspring are at peace. Yesterday, on International Refugee Day, the UN showed that not everyone is so lucky. According to its figures, in the course of 2022, 2.9 million new individual asylum applications were registered in 162 countries.

Their villages are right next door… In 1989, people were forced to leave behind their fields, livestock and other possessions to escape massacres when the Senegal-Mauritania conflict broke out. 34 years on, as the international community celebrates International Refugee Day, the large community of people originally from Mauritania living along the Senegal river valley, despite their integration, still have their minds at home.

The repatriation initiated in 2008 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to their villages of origin has not taken place, more than 15 years later. And the majority of Mauritanian refugees from the « events of 1989 » are still in the Senegal river valley. They are concentrated in Taredji, Ndioum, Dodel, Mboumba, Pété and Lougué. These are refugees whose children were born and raised in Senegal. Far from their homeland. With the support of UNHCR and the Senegalese government, the refugees have finally settled down, while keeping their minds on their country of origin.

Successful integration
After 34 years in Senegal, the refugees have not given up on returning to their country of origin. Their attachment to Mauritania is reflected each time in the movement of some of them, who stay there for months before returning to their host country. Despite the failed return, many of them believe that it may still be possible. Amadou, aged 54, whom we met in Diam Bouri (a refugee hamlet located 1 km from Lougué), explains I’ve just come from my home country (Mauritania) where I spent 4 months. I was a refugee when I was 20, but I know that all of us want to return home. In this hamlet created in 1989, despite the desire to return, the people have everything: land to cultivate, a drinking water supply and a primary school. As in all the reception sites in the Podor department.

In Ndioum, their home, known as Base, has become an essential part of the commune. In Pété, with the support of a former president of the rural community, the « deporteds », as they are commonly called in Fouta, have benefited from the deed of their home in their name, where the commune’s second primary schools and high school are being built. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a refugee living in Mboumba said: « The idea of returning is on the minds of 3/4 of the Mauritanian refugees living in the Senegal River Valley. But the problem is that when we return, we won’t find anything that we gave up to save our lives. Whereas here, we have rebuilt our lives. And we have Senegalese papers.”

After 34 years, while the older generation (most of whom were young during the events of 1989) cannot shake off the idea of returning to their country of origin, their children, who were born in Senegal and have been admitted to school, do not feel the same way as their parents. They have only known one country: Senegal.

By Demba NIANG (Correspondant)