African Liberation Forces of Mauritania

The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (, or ) is an exiled paramilitary organization for the Black African majority in Arabo- Mauritania.

Foundation

FLAM was founded in 1983 as tensions had increased between the two ethnicities following severe political instability and a controversial land reform enacted under Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Heidalla's military government. The group endorsed, but did not initiate, a violent overthrow of the regime, and was quickly outlawed. In 1986, it published the Manifesto of the oppressed black Mauritanian, which detailed government discrimination, and demanded the overthrow of the "Beidane System" (Beidane is an Arabic language-appellation for the Arabophone Moorish elite). Acting as an underground movement in Mauritania, with its main areas of strength in the southern areas of the country (bordering Senegal and Mauritania), and especially among the halpulaar population, FLAM's leadership was headquartered in Dakar and Paris. It remained committed to destroying the "Beidane System", accusing Mauritania's Moorish-dominated governments of instituting a form of "apartheid", and engaged in sporadic, small-scale guerrilla operations in the south of the country.

1989 events

Tensions between the group and Heidalla's successor Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya increased to a peak in April 1989, when a border dispute with southern neighbor Senegal led to widespread ethnic violence in the racially mixed border...
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