NOUAKCHOTT, Oct 28, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A total of 14,955 Mauritanian refugees in Senegal have returned since the repatriation operation began, an official source disclosed this to Xinhua on Tuesday.
The latest contingent, the 65th of the returnees, arrived on Tuesday at Boghe, a town on a river bank situated in the south of the capital Nouakchott, including 244 people from 58 families. They will resettle at eight villages along River Senegal.
The arrival of this contingent was supervised by the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the national agency for support and resettlement of refugees (ANAIR), with the collaboration of Senegalese and Mauritanian administrations.
According to ANAIR, 3,888 families have returned to Mauritania since the beginning of the operation in January 2008. After the interruptions caused by the rainy season, the organized convoys of repatriation resumed on Oct. 19, two convoys each week.
Instability in Mauritania between the late 1980s and the early 1990s forced 24, 000 people to flee into Senegal and 6,000 exiled in Mali.
