UNHCR: Reconciliation effort needed to avoid long-term Mali displacement

Almost two months on in Mali from the French intervention, UNHCR is continuing to see large numbers of internally displaced people, while in surrounding countries the numbers of refugees are still high and in some cases increasing. Despite improvements to the security situation in some areas, fear of returning home remains widespread.

Of the estimated 430,000 people uprooted by this crisis, available figures are that 260,665 are still displaced inside Mali. The refugee population is 170,300, of whom 71,624 are in Mauritania, 47,205 in Burkina Faso and some 50,000 in Niger, and 1,500 in Algeria. Spontaneous returns among IDPs are still low although bus services between Bamako and Gao resumed last week, and boats are also now travelling between Mopti and Timbuktu.

For IDPs and refugees alike the primary worry remains insecurity. Continued fighting, suicide attacks, reprisal attacks against some communities, the presence of mines and unexploded ordinance in the regions of Mopti, Gao, and Timbuktu, are all cited as reasons to delay returning. However, the absence of services in the north is also a factor: With few schools functioning there, and government authorities still absent in many towns and cities, many displaced families prefer to wait.

For those outside Mali, an additional complication is ethnic make-up, as a majority of the refugees are Tuareg or Arab. Fear of reprisal attacks is widespread, as is fear of criminality or that jihadists might remain present in the community. A reflection of the situation is that while new refugee numbers are substantially down on their levels of a few weeks ago, Mali is nonetheless continuing to see net refugee outflow, albeit a modest one. During February, average arrivals in Mauritania were over 1,500 people per week – mainly from the Lere, Goundam, Gnoufonke, and Timbuktu areas. Refugee numbers in Burkina and Niger are static.

UNHCR believes that reconciliation efforts are urgently needed, together with efforts to combat impunity, to encourage peaceful coexistence between communities, to help long-term stabilization and security and to prevent Mali's displacement crisis from becoming more protracted. We are at present planning support for reconciliation in areas of displacement and returns, as well as in refugee camps.

Photo: Pastor Aziz Cisse tries to get his 18-month-old son, Etienne, who has malaria, to eat breakfast. They live in a cramped compound in Bamako where more than 20 families from northern Mali have taken refuge. © UNHCR/G.Gordon