More Malians Flee to Mauritania
April 20, 2012
There’s a growing number of Malian refugees in neighboring Mauritania. Most are being taken to a camp about 30 kilometers from the border. However, a medical aid group says there’s an increasing demand at the camp for clean water and sanitation.
Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, says Malians have been crossing the border since January to escape ongoing fighting.
“There are more than 57,000 Malians [who have] arrived in Mauritania,” said Rosa Crestani, the group’s Emergency Desk manager.
Early this month, several hundred refugees a day were crossing the border. But that number has risen sharply.
“For example, three days ago we had 1,500 new arrivals in only one day. So it’s quite a big issue for us, also for everybody with these numbers of people escaping Mali,” said Crestani.
The refugees receive initial assistance at Fassala, about 3 kilometers from the Mali border. From there, they travel 27 kilometers to the U.N.-run Mbera refugee camp.
“At the beginning, the majority of the refugees were coming by cars and so on. The last arrivals – they are coming more and more with trucks and by foot. So they are quite tired and the general condition is certainly not good,” she said.
Since February, MSF has conducted about 8,500 healthcare consultations in Fassala and Mbera.
Crestani said, “The majority of these refugees are women and children. So we are dealing with all the care and problems quite normally in women and children, but especially these respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. Also a lot of skin infections. There are a lot of diseases that are particularly because of the lack of access to water. It’s very hot and sandy, so there are all these diseases that are really common in this kind of situation.”
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