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Mauritania police disperse anti-slavery protesters: eyewitnesses

Xinhua, April 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Mauritanian security officers on Monday "violently" dispersed anti-slavery protesters in the capital Nouakchott, eyewitnesses say.

The protesters had planned a sit-in in front of the Nouakchott High Court to demand the release of their leaders, who are in prison for "belonging to an unregistered organization".

The protesters were carrying placards demanding the release of Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid and Brahim Ould Bilal Ould Ramdhane, the president and vice-president of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania, a local NGO.

The two were sentenced to two years in prison by a court in the town of Rosso, where they had been arrested in November 2014 during a protest march against slavery.

They were first jailed in Aleg, some 250 km from the capital, and were transferred to Nouakchott last October after doctors noted the deteriorating health condition of Biram Ould Dah.

Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981, but a UN special rapporteur's report in 2010 said "de facto slavery continues to exist in Mauritania".

Activists say some of the descendants of black Africans captured during historical slave raids still serve as "slaves" to lighter-skinned people in the West African country. Endit