Ancient city of Chinguetti, founded in 1262 on the bank of a river that has now disappeared among the dunes, a Unesco World Heritage Site, now struggles to survive the advance of desert, with locals constantly having to remove windblown sand from alleys

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an emergency fundraising appeal to help the Mauritanian Red Crescent expand its response to the influx of Malian refugees

The number of refugees fleeing insecurity in the Sahel to Mauritania has reached 'a critical threshold', the Defence Minister said; according to a recent UNHCR report, there are 275.000 refugees and asylum seekers in the population of 4,9 million

Mauritania is hosting over 262.000 refugees from Mali, mostly women and children, estimates UN refugee agency