Author:
Abdallah's war is only a short bus ride away. Mali, Abdallah's long-suffering country, is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the house where the shy boy is now crouched on the floor.
Abdallah was 11 when Tuareg rebels launched an uprising against Mali's central government in 2012. He fled westward with his family, and they ended up in the Mbera refugee camp in Mauretania, not far from the border.
Today, Abdallah is a 15-year-old boy with black curls and a shy, questioning look in his eyes. He has just arrived for the second stay in the giant refugee city in the Mauritanian desert. Before coming back, he had returned to Mali -- as a skinny boy with a Kalashnikov around his neck. Abdallah was a child soldier.
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