Malian refugees turn to firefighting to give back to their communities in Mauritania

Refugee firefighters sway in line and beat the ground with spindly tree branches as the sun sets over the barren Mauritanian desert.

Over more than a decade fighting bushfires, they have perfected the technique of cracking wood against the dry grasslands.

In this region of West Africa, bushfires are deadly.

They can break out in the blink of an eye and last for days.

The impoverished, vast territory is shared by local Mauritanians and over 250,000 refugees from neighboring Mali, who rely on the scarce vegetation to feed their livestock.

For the refugee firefighters, battling the blazes is a way of giving back to the local community, which took them in when they fled violence and instability at home in Mali.

Hantam Ag Ahmedou left Mali in 2012 aged 11 to settle in the Mbera refugee camp in Mauritania.

Like most refugees and locals, his family are herders and once in Mbera, they saw how quickly bushfires spread and how devastating they can be.

His father started organizing volunteer firefighters, at the time around 200 refugees.

The local Mauritanians had been fighting bushfires for decades, Ag Ahmedou said, but the Malian refugees brought with themselves the know-how that gave them an advantage.

Since 2018, the firefighters have been under the patronage of the UNHCR.

The European Union finances their training and equipment, as well as the clearing of firebreak strips to stop the fires from spreading.

The volunteers today count over 360 refugees who work with the local Mauritanian authorities and firefighters.

When a bushfire breaks out and the alert comes in, the firefighters jump into their pickup trucks and drive out.

Once at the site of the fire, a 20-member team spreads out and starts pounding the ground at the edge of the blaze with acacia branches — a rare tree that has a high resistance to heat.

Usually, three other teams stand by in case the first team needs replacing.

About 90% of Mauritania is covered by the Sahara Desert.

Climate change has accelerated desertification and increased the pressure on natural resources, especially water, experts say.

The United Nations says tensions between locals and refugees over grazing areas is a key threat to peace.

Tayyar Sukru Cansizoglou, the UNHCR chief in Mauritania, said that with the effects of climate change, even the local Mauritanians cannot find enough grazing land for their own cows and goats — so a “single bushfire” becomes life-threatening for everyone.