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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Eromo Egbejule in the Mbera refugee camp

Plain rice and little else: life for 120,000 refugees inside Mauritania’s vast camp on Mali’s border

People walk on a dirt path strewn with rubbish past stalls made of corrugated iron and tarpaulin.
The market in Mbera camp now has more than 500 shops. Photograph: Guy Peterson/The Guardian

Several mornings a week, Mohamed ‘Momo’ Ag Malha walks at least 7 miles (11km) around the vast Mbera refugee camp in south-eastern Mauritania that has been his home since 2012. The exercise keeps the 84-year-old camp leader mentally and physically fit, and allows him to check on the wellbeing of other residents.

His first stay in Mauritania came in 1991, when he fled Mali as Tuareg separatists clashed with the army in his native Timbuktu region.

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