Fears for 120,000 Malian refugees in vast camp

Several mornings a week, Mohamed "Momo" Ag Malha walks at least 7 miles (11km) around the vast Mbera refugee camp in south-eastern Mauritania that has been his home since 2012.

- Eromo Egbejule

The exercise keeps the 84-year-old camp leader mentally and physically fit, and allows him to check on the wellbeing of other residents.

His first stay in Mauritania came in 1991, when he fled Mali as Tuareg separatists clashed with the army in his native Timbuktu region.

After four years as a refugee, he returned home and worked for a year as a social worker before becoming a teacher. Then in 2012, the Tuareg conflict once again forced him across the border.

The former mathematics and physics teacher said he felt particularly sorry for the younger residents of Mbera, which is situated approximately 30 miles from the Malian border.

"Some of the children who were born here in Mbera have never even seen Mali," he said. "They do not know their country [and] that is painful because a refugee always has two hearts: one here, where he lives, and another over there, in his homeland, which he dreams of returning to one day." Mbera hosts about 120,000 refugees, according to UNHCR. In addition, it is estimated that at least 154,000 refugees reside across the Hodh Ech Chargui region. More than half are under 18.

Government officials say the area is the third-largest settlement in Mauritania after Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, the administrative and commercial capitals.