Malian Refugees Feel 'Lost' in Their Own Country

All Africa
Out of fear of rebels, Islamists and terrorists some 475,000 Malians have fled northern Mali within a year. But far away from their home, life has become a daily struggle. Now many of them are considering a return.

Aisha Yattara's two-month-old son starts to cry as his young mother tries to calm him. It only seems to work for a minute, and then the crying continues.

"The child is sick today" Aisha says. She knows she is in dire need of a doctor, but she lacks the money. Her last hope is her elder sister. "If she comes and brings money, then we can go to the doctor and have the little one checked."

For months now, Yattara and her family have been lacking money for basic essentials.

Since June 2012, the young woman with her husband, her mother and ten brothers and sisters together with two of their own young children, have been living in the Malian capital, Bamako. They ended up in the big city after being forced to flee their home town of Gao in northern Mali because of the on-going political situation.

Gao was initially captured by the Tuareg-led rebels, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in spring 2012. A little later, the Islamist group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), replaced the MNLA and introduced the strict Muslim Sharia law. Life became unbearable for Yattara and her family, and they were left with only one option - fleeing to the capital Bamako.

Tough big city lifeAisha's mother Fatouma Arbi says she simply can not cope with life in the big city. "For someone with no job Bamako is a difficult place. My kids don't have jobs, I don't have a job and my husband is dead."

There hasn't been a regular and reliable support for Aisha's family and the other remaining internally displaced people. They survive off their savings or depend on their relatives.

According to recent estimates by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 300,000 people have left their homes to other regions of Mali. Almost 175,000 more have fled to neighboring countries.'

Most of those displaced are likely to be found in Bamako or the cities of Mopti and Sevare. They live either with relatives or in rented houses, but most of them feel neglected and forgotten.