Country: Mauritania

Group: Pulaar

Date Finalized: 08/09/2021

Team: Vianney Mancilla (lead) and Alicia Hernandez

Content Warning: physical violence, homicide, torture, sexual assault.

Approximate Time Period: 1989-1992

There is substantial evidence suggesting that Pulaar in Mauritania have faced lethal violence. The data quality is rated a 3 due to the large number of consistent and reputable sources.

The Pulaar in Mauritania belong to the larger category of Afro-Mauritanians (Human Rights Watch, 2018). The Pulaar lived largely in peace until the late 1980s when President Maâouiya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya overthrew the government (Human Rights Watch, 2018). In 1989, tension and armed clashes increased over the fertile Senegal River Valley (Human Rights Watch, 2018; Minority Rights, 2021). The violence then spurred a “campaign of terror” where the Mauritanian government attacked and killed 150-200 Afro-Mauritanians, including the Pulaar (Human Rights Watch, 1994, Human Rights Watch, 2018). From 1989 to 1990, the Mauritanian military and security forces executed, arrested, beat, tortured, and raped the Afro-Mauritanians of the Senegal River Valley (Human Rights Watch, 1994; Amnesty, 1990). Moreover, from 1990 to 1991, government forces executed and tortured 500-600 black political prisoners until their death (Human Rights Watch, 1994; Human Rights Watch, 2018). The Mauritanian government expelled tens of thousands of Afro-Mauritanians from 1989 to 1992 (Human Rights Watch, 1994; Minority Rights, 2021). The United Nations estimates that over 65,000 Mauritanian refugees have sought refuge in neighboring countries (Human Rights Watch, 2018). The Afro-Maurtanians are also subjected to forced labor, especially in the countryside (Human Rights Watch, 1994). Mauritanian authorities fail to prosecute slaveholders or investigate and punish those responsible for the human rights violations against the Afro-Mauratanians (Human Rights Watch, 1994). 

Sources

  1. Amnesty International. (1990). Mauritania: Human Rights Violations in the Senegal River Valley. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr38/010/1990/en/ on August 7, 2021.
  2. Human Rights Watch. (2018). Ethnicity, Discrimination, and Other Red Lines. Repression of Human Rights Defenders in Mauritania. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/12/ethnicity-discrimination-and-other-red-lines/repression-human-rights-defenders on August 7, 2021.
  3. Human Rights Watch. (1994). Mauritania’s Campaign of Terror: State-Sponsored Repression of Black Africans. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/MAURITAN944.PDF on August 7, 2021.
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2021). ​​Black Africans. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/black-africans/ on August 7, 2021