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Welcomed home at last (Multimedia)

Mauritanian returnee women who are living near the town of Rosso in the south of the country, with support from UNHCR, the government and NGOs. Manon Riviere/IRIN

Mauritanians expelled from their homeland in 1989 during a wave of ethnic violence have started to return to Mauritania from Senegal, as part of an ongoing repatriation process run by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.  


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Bringing the refugees home from Senegal and Mali is one of the Mauritanian government’s priorities for 2008. 

Since January 2008, some 4,000 black African Mauritanians have returned home.  So far, fears that their return would fuel old ethnic tensions and create conflict over jobs have not materialised.

IRIN followed the journey of one group of refugees returning to Mauritania on a UNHCR convoy.


This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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