Khabenskaya Ye.O. The 1989 Senegal-Mauritanian conflict: reasons and consequences

Abstract: A border conflict occurred in 1989 between Senegal and Mauritania, it grew into an armed conflict, and later, into a prolonged crisis. The Senegal-Mauritania 1989–1991 crisis had long-standing political, economic, and sociocultural background. The main reason for the conflict was the lack of resolution of territorial disputes between the two countries, reaching from colonial times. The conflict between two countries sparked ethnic and racial tensions between African and Arab population in Senegal — and aggravated an existing one in Mauritania. The methodological basis of this research consists of systemic, structural-functional, comparativehistorical, comparative-political, geopolitical, cultural-civilizational approaches, and the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, modeling and observation. Along with the escalation of the Senegal-Mauritania conflict, mass riots have taken place, and fighting between two ethnic groups broke out, resulting in hundreds dead and thousands forced to become refugees. The harshest consequences of the Senegal-Mauritania conflict are humanitarian. Thousands of afro-Mauritian refugees that fled their homes during the conflict still cannot return to Mauritania, and thousands more who returned cannot restore their homes, their land, and their status, and even citizenship.

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