African Liberation Forces of Mauritania
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The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (French: Forces de Libération Africaines de Mauritanie, or FLAM) is a representative organization for the Black African minority in Arab- and Berber-dominated Mauritania, founded in 1983 as tensions had increased between the two ethnicities. Tensions between the group and the Sid'Ahmed Taya government increased to a peak in April 1989, when a border dispute with southern neighbor Senegal broke out into violence between the two ethnicities. Tens of thousands of Black Mauritanians were forced from their jobs in the civil sector to flee across the Senegal River, where FLAM is based. Senegalese relations with Mauritania deteriorated as a result, and violence would not dissipate until 1991. Today, over 25,000 Black Mauritanian refugees remain in Senegal, and are awaiting any change in the posture of the new transitional government of Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall which took over in August 2005; the governing junta, being seen as somewhat more sensitive to the refugees, has stated that the promised successive elected government will handle the question of resettlement of the refugees once in power. In anticipation, a wing of the FLAM, FLAM-Renovation (Reform), split off from the main organization to participate in Mauritania's current political transition.
