Abstract: The phenomenon of ethnic conflicts and accompanying factors in the various regions of the world is one of the global problems that mankind faces today. In this article the author examines the history of emergence and resolution of the ethnic conflict in the delta of the Senegal River, that started in the late 1980s. The core of the conflict was in the mutual territorial claims between the black population of the left river bank and the Arab population who resided on the right bank of the Senegal river. The author spotlights the historical preconditions, characteristics and deeper motives of the conflict. The foundation of the study consists of the method of historism, including detailed study of cause and effect relations between the phenomena covered in the article, as well as the comparative historical analysis of literature covering the Mauritania–Senegal conflict. The academic novelty of this study is based on the fact that the article analyzes the foreign literature on Mauritania–Senegal conflict, as this issue is practically untouched in Russian historiography. Based on this analysis, the author highlights the specific traits of the ethnic conflicts in West Africa - for instance, their dependence not only interreligious contradictions, but also climate change.