Mauritania helps Malian refugees return home

Malian refugees living in Mauritania are heading back to their country after calm was restored to the northern regions inhabited by Arabs and Tuareg rebels, sources have told Arab Today. The Mauritanian government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are arranging trips from the Mauritanian city of Pascno to the north cities of Mali. Locals from the Malian-Mauitanian border town of Fasala told Arab Today that the first group of refugees had left the Mauritanian territory for Mali. Mauritania has been home to about 70,000 Malian refugees who arrived in Mauritania after the escalation in the battles between the Malian and French armies on the one hand and the Islamist fighters on the other. The Mauritanian government prepared a camp for the Malian refugees in Ambrah, 18 km east of Pascno.