"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."
"Some of the children who were born here in Mbera have never even seen Mali, he says. They do not know their country [and] that is painful because a refugee always has two hearts: one here, where he lives, and another over there, in his homeland, which he dreams of returning to one day. Initially conceived as a few thousand shelters, Mbera now hosts around 120,000 refugees,"
Mohamed Momo' Ag Malha, an 84-year-old camp leader, walks at least seven miles several mornings each week around Mbera refugee camp to stay fit and check on residents. He first fled Mali in 1991 during clashes between Tuareg separatists and the army, later returned and worked as a social worker and teacher, and fled again in 2012 when the Tuareg conflict resumed. Many children born in Mbera have never seen Mali and live with divided attachments to homeland and camp. Mbera has grown from a few thousand shelters to host around 120,000 refugees, with at least 154,000 more in nearby villages, and more arrivals continue monthly as jihadist violence displaces families.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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