Mauritania: Victims of ethnic violence offered compensation

The Mauritanian Government have unveiled plans to provide financial compensation to a group of Afro-Mauritanians who were victims of ethnic violence between 1989 and 1991 according to Moroccan government friendly North Africa Post on 21st October.

This provision of compensation comes in light of extrajudicial executions and torture that were committed against Black-skinned Mauritanians who did not belong to the Arabic-speaking majority groups such as the Haratin and Beidane. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there were reportedly many cases of race-based and ethnicity-based violence enacted on Afro-Maurtianians. As such, the Mauritanian government described their plans to provide over 27 billion ougiyas (or €59 million) to Afro-Mauritaninas as a form of financial compensation for the history of ethnic violence in the country.

The decision, which was announced last week, symbolises an important step for the country in acknowledging the history of violence and injustice Afro-Mauritanians suffered under for years. Representatives of the victims, who partook in lengthy discourse with officials of the state, were reported to have viewed the proposal as a culmination of years of advocacy for Afro-Mauritanians. However, according to one of the representatives, Lo Souleymane, the government’s decision is bellow the 35 billion ouguiyas that activists had requested and still needs to be approved by the representatives.

Meanwhile, the Mauritanian Government’s proposition of compensation has been met with ambivalence from civil society. Activist groups such as The Collective of Widows and Orphans of Mauritania were said to have described the move in a critical light, emphasising how financial reconciliation ignores a dimension of truth and accountability in the situation. As said by Maimouna Alpha Sy: “Justice must be done, and the truth about the massacres must be revealed. Money cannot replace what was lost.”

While the proposition aims to help the country move on from scars of ethnic violence, it also ignores reports of humans rights violations still happening in the country, mainly towards groups such as migrants.

Many continue to demand an independent commission of inquiry from the Mauritanian Government in hopes of unveiling the unclouded atrocities that were committed against Afro-Mauritanians during this period. Whether or not financial compensation will provide respite for the generational trauma suffered by Afro-Mauritanians is yet to be confirmed as negotiations await conclusion.

North Africa Post, Maghrebi.org