Hodh El Chargi

Hodh El Chargi—Mauritania's largest region at 182,700 km² (17.7% of national territory)—has transformed from pastoral heartland into refugee crisis zone. The region borders Mali to the south and east, and as Mali's security situation deteriorated, refugees flooded across. By March 2024, Hodh El Chargi hosted over 242,000 Malian refugees: 110,000 in Mbera camp and 132,000 dispersed across 70 host villages. The 2023-2024 arrivals brought 240,000 livestock heads, overwhelming local water and pasture resources. Tensions persist along the Mali border, with troop movements disrupting traditional transhumance routes that herders have used for generations. The pastoral economy—built around cattle, sheep, and goats from Mauritania's 21.8 million ruminant herd—now faces atypical concentration as insecurity blocks migration to Malian grazing lands. This creates overgrazing and bushfire risks in southern areas with good pasture. The African Development Bank's AWKAR project attempts to develop agropastoral resources in the northeastern Dahr area, but structural challenges remain: multidimensional poverty, low education, limited services. By 2026, Hodh El Chargi's trajectory depends on Mali's security situation, whether humanitarian aid reaches dispersed refugee populations, and whether pastoral resources can sustain both residents and refugees without ecological collapse.