ETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE SOUTH: A DEPUTY MAYOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NOUAKCHOTT 000684

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/19/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM MR
SUBJECT: ETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE SOUTH: A DEPUTY MAYOR
OFFERS A CANDID VIEW

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Dennis Hankins for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (C) Summary: On the surface, ethnic issues in Southern
Mauritania appear to be better than ever -- both happy and
peaceful. However, one deputy mayor was willing to describe
the lack of national unity and the lack of a true feeling of
citizenship, especially among youth. This situation,
according to him, was beginning to create visible ethnic
divisions within the younger generation. End Summary.


2. (SBU) From November 10-12, a three-person Embassy and
USAID team traveled to southern Mauritania to meet with local
officials and assess repatriation efforts of the thousands of
returnees who were either deported or sought refuge in
Senegal from the Mauritanian's 1989-1992 ethnic fighting,
otherwise known as the "Passif Humanitaire". The team visited
a number of regional and department officials and four
returnee sites in the regions of Trarza, Brakna and Gorgol.


3. (C) In almost all of these places, community leaders
painted a rosy picture of relations between the various
ethnicities, stating that there were no ethnic tensions
whatsoever. They supported these assertions by stating that
people from the different ethnic groups intermarried, spoke
each other's language, and ate together.


4. (C) However, it was in Kaedi, the regional capital of
Gorgol, where the team encountered a young deputy mayor,
Seybani Sidi Diagana and two of his deputy mayor
counterparts, who were willing to talk more openly about
growing ethnic tensions. According to Diagana, a man in his
mid-thirties, people in Kaedi are both politically and
ethnically divided. He said the southern regions are known
for being fiefdoms of political opposition. This, he
explained, is why these regions are the country's poorest and
cut off from the majority of government assistance. He went
on to say that Gorgol is the country's second poorest region,
with first place going to its southern (and more remote)
neighbor, Guidimaka.


5. (C) Diagana blamed southern political issues on political
lethargy and immaturity, complaining that there is a
detachment between the capital and the rural south. He
explained that since the advent of democracy (2006-2007
elections),Gorgol Members of Parliament have not defended or
fought for increased assistance to the Gorgol region. He
gave the example of flooding in 2007, when more northern
towns like Tintane, in easy access of Nouakchott, received
all the humanitarian and financial assistance, while Kaedi,
which also flooded at that time, received nothing from
Nouakchott. According to Diagana, Gorgol inhabitants do not
even have enough money to buy food, let alone farming
equipment, which he reported they desperately needed.


6. (C) Towards the end of the meeting, Diagana opened up a
frank discussion of ethnic relations in the area,
specifically with respect to the youth. Speaking in a candid
manner that EmbOffs had not encountered previously on the
trip, Diagana explained that there are increasing ethnic
divisions among the youth, because "they mirror what they
see", possibly inferring that older Mauritanians are also
partial to this behavior, either consciously or
unconsciously. According to him, the four main ethnic groups
-- White Moor, Haratine, Wolof, and Hupular -- tend to
socialize within their own ethnic group to a growing extent.
He noted that this is true at various levels, including at
schools and with groups simply walking down the street. He
emphasized that this was a psychological attitude -- a
voluntary "collective mentality" of self-separation, rather
than groups actively pitting themselves against each other.
Diagana explained that although President Abdallahi had
initiated a program of National Unity, the junta had put that
program on hold since the August 6 coup. He lamented that
Mauritanians have little sense of citizenship or societal
belonging, and as a result, a fixation on mediocrity.
"National unity is a facade," he flatly stated. According to
Diagana, the only way to resolve this problem is to empower
the youth -- economically and socially. He said that youth
vocational training efforts should be significantly

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increased. He gave as an example the region's out-dated
farming techniques, and how youth could be trained in new
farming methodologies to help the region and ultimately the
nation. He also said that youth have to be given the
opportunity to choose what technical training they will
receive because if training is forced upon them, the effort
will backfire.


7. (C) Comment: It took many meetings with community
leaders to finally come across someone who was willing to
move beyond the seemingly automatic statements that there are
no ethnic tensions in the south. Deputy Mayor Diagana's
observations of growing ethnic tensions among youth in the
southern regions mirrors findings in the USAID and DOD's
Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) program
design research conducted in Mauritania in 2005, 2006 and

2008. While the TSCTP studies focused on more northern and
eastern urban centers, the recent Gorgol visit was
enlightening because it demonstrates that this issue could be
more geographically pervasive than originally thought. End
comment.


8. (C) Charge Comment: One of the main reasons for sending
the Mission delegation to the south was in response to
comments from Afro-Mauritanian politicians that the black
community was prepared to take up arms against the military
regime seen as protecting white Arab interests over Black
Moors and Afro-Mauritanians. While ethnic divisions
certainly remain, we did not see a region ready to blow. As
in previous reporting on the legacy of the 1980's and early
90's expulsion of Afro-Maurtitanians to Senegal, we find
sentiments about racial issues far more charged among
Nouakchott elites and the diaspora than we find among
Afro-Mauritanians living in the heart of the issue. End
Comment
HANKINS