The United Nations-run camp in Mauritania has warned that thousands of Malian refugees fleeing conflict to neighboring Mauritania are facing appalling conditions in a charity medical camp.
The Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF said Conditions at the Mbera refugee camp are so bad that healthy people are getting ill after they have arrived in the camp day in and day out.
There is only one toilet for every 3,000 residents and new arrivals have to build their own shelters in the camp, local reporters said.
More also, Refugees are receiving only 11 litres (2.9 gallons) of water a day in 50C (122F) heat, and there is a desperate shortage of toilets, though more are now being built but not completed.
Some 70,000 refugees are now believed to be living at the Mbera camp which is located at the remote part of Mauritania close to the Malian border.
“More than 100,000 people from northern Mali are currently displaced within their country or have escaped abroad as refugees,” says Henry Gray, emergency co-coordinator of MSF.
“Most of the refugees are from the Tuareg and Arab communities. They fled pre-emptively, often for fear of violence due to their presumed links with Islamist or separatist groups. Their home in northern Mali is still in the grip of fear and mistrust”, he said.
“The number of children admitted per week for severe malnutrition has more than doubled, from 42 to 106, despite the nutritional status of the new refugees being generally good when assessed on arrival in the camp’’, he added
Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF said these findings were based on testimony from more than 100 residents living in the Mbera camp.
Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF said it is urgently calling on aid organizations operating inside the camp – which is overseen by the UN refugee agency UNHCR – to redouble their efforts to provide shelter, clean water, latrines, and food at minimum humanitarian standards.
Political analysts say the fear is that unless conditions in the camp improve significantly, the refugees – most of whom are nomads (Cattle rears) – will abandon it, but will be unable to return home due to the conflict and might end up roaming in the desert which is dangerous.
The country is however set to go the polls in July this year with the largest party picking its candidate yesterday which France said is a step in the right direction.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
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