Country: Mauritania
Group: Pulaar
Date: 3/30/21
Team: Johanna McCombs (lead), Rayna Castillo, Hannah Goldman, Jocelyn Chen
A majority of the Pulaar in Mauritania have experienced direct action to expel them from their homes. Because the information is consistent across multiple reliable sources, the data quality score is a 3.
The Pulaar in Mauritania go by numerous names and comprise roughly 10% of the population. In Mauritania, they are often classified as dark skinned people and ethnically sub-Saharan African (Minority Rights Group, n.d.; Boukhars, 2012). The black population of Mauritania as a whole, including the Pulaar, has been historically targeted and marginalized by the government. Forced removal from their land is among these discriminatory attacks. In 1989, the Mauritanian government began expelling tens of thousands of black Mauritanians from their lands, prompting an estimated 70,000-80,000 to seek refuge in Senegal and Mali (Fleischman, 1994; Minority Rights Group, 2017). The massive deportations resulted from a dispute regarding the land around the Senegal River, which revealed ethnic tension against Black Mauritanians. The Mauritanian government expelled tens of thousands of Black Mauritanians to Senegal by truck, many without family or any possessions. Pastoralists, peasant farmers, soldiers, civil servants, and those who held high positions faced these expulsions. If the black Mauritians were not initially expelled many fled to escape persecution led by the government (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). In 1990, the army also destroyed at least 30 villages that had been occupied by the Pulaars, displacing hundreds of people (Minority Rights Group, 2017). Then, in 1991 about 500 the Mauritanian government executed or tortured by Black Mauritanian soldiers due to their ethnicity (Jourde, 2001). In 1992 Mauritania was pressured by western countries to become more democratic to continue receiving aid, which resulted in their first multi-party election. (Jourde, 2001). Between 1994 and 1997 the government invited those expelled back in Mauritania. Around 30,000 returned but were not offered any resources, identity cards or their land back so most eventually left Mauritania again (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). In 2007 the government invited them back again offering resources and nationality documentation. This process stopped in 2010 when the government made receiving nationality increasingly more difficult, and Black Mauritians experienced the most discrimination concerning this (Minority Rights Group, n.d.).
The sources used above were credible and consistent in showing that the Pulaar in Mauritania experienced being forced away, but there is limited information overall available so the data quality is a 2.
Sources
- Black Africans. (n.d.). Minority Rights Group. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/black-africans/
- Jourde, C. (2001). Ethnicity, Democratization, and Political Dramas: Insights into Ethnic Politics in Mauritania. African Issues, 29(1/2), 26–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/1167106
- Boukhars, A. (2012). THE DRIVERS OF INSECURITY IN MAURITANIA. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from www.CarnegieEndowment.org/pubs.
- Fleischman, J. (1994). MAURITANIA’S CAMPAIGN OF TERROR: State-Sponsored Repression of Black Africans. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/MAURITAN944.PDF