Diplomats from Mali and Mauritania have been labouring hard to avert a border situation between the neighbouring West African countries. In April, Mauritania blamed the Malian military (FAMa) and its Russian mercenary associates for chasing armed men across the border into the villages of Madallah and Fassala.
“Several of our civilian compatriots were killed by the Malian army and fighters from the Wagner Group in Mauritanian camps on the border. We sent evidence to Bamako,” a Mauritanian security source on the border said. Relations between the nations have been mostly friendly for decades, but difficult security challenges linger along the porous 2,237-kilometer border.
Mauritania hosts the most extensive number of Malian refugees in the Sahel region, including more than 91,263 Malians who reside in camps in the Hodh Chargui border area in the southeast, according to the World Food Programme. Large-scale repatriations are not anticipated, as Malians continue to escape widespread violence from Taureg separatists, multiple damaging extremist organizations and abuses at the hands of Russian mercenaries and FAMa. A large terrorist group linked with al-Qaida is known to function in the border area.
On April 19, Mauritania demanded the Malian ambassador in Nouakchott, Mohamed Dibassi, to “protest against the reiterated attacks against innocent and defenceless civilians,” a Mauritanian foreign ministry statement stated, adding that the “unacceptable condition persists despite the warnings our country has issued.”
The following day, Mauritanian Defense Minister Hanana Ould Sidi visited Malian junta leader Assimi Goita in Bamako in an endeavour to de-escalate the tension. In response to the cross-border aggression on its southeastern villages by Russian Wagner Group mercenaries and FAMa, Mauritania performed military drills near the border on May 5 with Lt. Gen. Mokhtar Bellah Shaaban, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, on hand to urge “constant vigilance.”
“The aim of the visit was to specify the readiness of the combat units and their operational level, learn about their logistical demands and test infantry weapons, artillery, anti-aircraft weapons, missile launchers and combat aircraft,” the Armed Forces of Mauritania expressed in a statement. “Aviation, artillery and special forces partook in destroying a hypothetical enemy who attempted to infiltrate the national territory to carry out an aggressive act.”
Between May 4 and 5, Sidi and Mauritanian Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine met with residents in several villages along the Malian border. Sidi committed to bolstering the military’s presence in the region and said Malian authorities assured him that they have enacted procedures to prevent any further intrusions into Mauritanian territory.
“We would like to express our regret, our pain and our condemnation of the events which affected our fellow citizens, both in the border villages and within this sister country of Mali,” Lemine stated, according to Mauritanian newspaper L’authentique.
