First Independent Mena Newspaper
After years of fighting for their rights despite crackdown and imprisonment, members of Mauritania’s leading anti-slavery NGO, the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) are preparing their participation in local elections to make their voice heard. Led by recipient of UN human rights prize in 2013, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abied, IRA is not recognized […]
The Mauritanian government was rebuked at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for its failure to abolish entirely slavery practices, which remain widespread in the West African country. A heated exchange took place between the Mauritanian government and independent national and international NGO’s calling for abolishing the abhorrent slavery practice in Mauritania as part […]
Despite international outcry against slavery across the globe, Mauritanian authorities continue their crackdown on anti-slavery activists with the arrest recently of abolitionist Biram Ould Abeid who was interrogated by authorities following three days of demonstrations led by the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA). Analysts consider his arrest as a move by the government to […]
Mauritanian activist Biram Dah Abeid Wednesday was forced to abort conference on human rights abuses and racism in his country after receiving instructions from Senegalese authorities. The leader of the anti-slavery movement (IRA) Wednesday called off Thursday-planed conference on the situation of human rights and racism in the North African country where he has been […]
Mauritanian authorities persist on maintaining a blackout on the practice of slavery in the country by denying access to international civil rights organizations, the latest of which is a US anti-slavery delegation that planned meetings with Mauritanian government officials and activists. The group, which includes leading US abolitionists, was rejected entry visas after landing at […]
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will not rule Mauritania beyond 2019, end of his current tenure, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) has told sympathizers. Mauritania has been embroiled in a political crisis after it became clear that President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz wanted […]
U.N. human rights officials condemned the systematic oppression endured by anti-slavery activists in Mauritania who have been handed a 15-year jail sentence. “The (Mauritanian) government is hostile to civil society groups that criticize its policies, especially to groups like IRA, whose members are drawn from the Haratin minority and advocate for an end to slavery,” […]
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has asked his Burkina Faso counterpart Marc-Christian Kaboré for explanations for letting Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Birame ould Dah ould Abeïd speak on the West African country’s public channel, reports say. Tension has risen between the two presidents after Birame ould Dah ould Abeïd, leader of the anti-slavery movement IRA […]
Leader of the anti-slavery movement IRA (Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement) has slammed President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’s regime for looting the Mauritanian people, reports say. “Their only realization is illicit enrichment, division of Mauritanians, and ideological, ethnical and religious indoctrination of communities,” Biram Dah Abeid said in an address before members […]
Mauritanian authorities arrested last Sunday scores of anti-slavery activists on the backdrop of riots and clashes last week with security forces in Nouakchott. The riots started when security forces stormed slump dwellings occupied for decades by the Haratin ethnic group, many of them former slaves. The authorities accused the members of the Initiative for the […]