MAURITANIA: Thousands of returnees await legal status

BOYINGEL THILLE Wednesday, November 26, 2008 (IRIN) - The Mauritanian government has promised thousands of repatriated citizens waiting for their residency papers for nearly a year that they will receive identity cards by year’s end. “Without papers, I cannot leave this [returnees] camp because I cannot get past the police checkpoints,” said Abdoulaye Samba Sow, chief of one of the 34 tent communities for returnees located in the southern regions of Trarza and Brakna. Sow belongs to one of...