Photo:Malian refugees wait in Fassala to be registered by Mauritanian officials and a local NGO after fleeing Mali for the border. Mauritania 2012 © Lynsey Addario/VII

Alarming Malnutrition and Mortality Among Malian Refugees in Mauritania

One year after the start of the political crisis in Mali, insecurity resulting from the military coup, the Tuareg rebellion, and the presence of armed Islamist groups in the north has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Some 55,000 refugees are still living in difficult conditions in the Mbera camp in Mauritania. A nutrition and retrospective mortality survey by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontères (MSF) has revealed critical mortality and malnutrition rates. In this interview, Karl Nawezi, head of MSF’s activities in Mauritania, explains why the situation in the camp—which is located in the middle of the desert a few kilometres from the Malian border—has reached such an alarming point.