Mauritania: the other 28 November of the victims of "humanitarian liabilities"
View of the Mauritanian capital Nouackchott.
© Laura Martel / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The country is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence this Saturday, November 28.
But this date also marks another anniversary, painful: the massacre of 28 black soldiers, hanged on the base of Inal, in the region of Nouadhibou, on November 28, 1990. A drama which is part of a period of bloody repression against the Negro-Mauritanians, between 1989 and 1991. A period qualified as “humanitarian passive”.
As every year, the collective of widows has planned its own walk this Saturday to demand justice once again.
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With our special correspondent in Nouakchott,
Charlotte Idrac
On mats, Houlèye Sall welcomes the members in the courtyard of his house.
Today, the president of the Widows' Collective is 80 years old.
Her son Abdoulaye was killed in November 1990. “
My life was wasted
,” she confides.
The state has never said anything, never done anything… I feel a little old, but for 30 years, I have been walking on November 28 in protest.
"
An amnesty law was passed in 1993 for the perpetrators of crimes committed between 1989 and 1992. Inadmissible for Maïmouna Alpha Sy.
Her husband, a customs officer, was killed in Nouadhibou on the eve of Independence Day.
"
Our children and our grandchildren
"
“
Independence Day should be joy,”
says Maïmouna Alpha Sy.
Us, it's the opposite: it's crying, it's mourning.
They were told why they were buried.
The people in charge are there.
We want these people to be brought to justice.
We're never going to give up.
If it isn't us, it will be our children and our grandchildren.
"
In fact, Mamadou Lamtoro Camara was barely 2 years old when his father was killed in Inal.
The 30-something talks about a duty to remember: “
I sometimes see generations of my age who don't even know what happened in Mauritania.
It's serious.
All the children in the country need to know.
Like that, we can build Mauritania in a good dynamic and live together.
"
Before the march, a day of prayers was organized this Friday.
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To read also: Mauritania: the unfinished site of the unit
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