4 activists held for trying to free slaves in #Mauritania

Journalist, photographer, University professor, and a businessman detained. 

Four members of the IRA (Initiative for the resurgence of the Anti-Slavery Movement in Mauritania) are currently being detained in the city of Aioun by the Mauritanian authorities for demanding that three young slave siblings be freed from their masters. The IRA was alerted by 16 year-old Taleb Jidou, a runaway slave whose three younger siblings – two boys and a girl age 14, 12 and 10 – are held in bondage by the Ehl Khanvour family of the Hodh El Gharbi region

The IRA released this weekend the photos of Lehbous O. Oumar (Businessman), Ely o. Rava (Professor at the University of Nouakchott), El Mehdi O. Lemrabott (Journalist) and Abdallahi A. Diop (Photographer) who are being subjected to inhuman treatments according to the anti-slavery group.

The police are accused of abusing the detained activists

In its latest press release, the IRA seeks to:

“Alert the national and international public opinion on this inhuman method of detention that can lead to death or degradation of the health of the prisoners;

Stand up once again against the strategy of the Mauritanian Government that imprisons plaintiffs instead of punishing those who are guilty of the practice of slavery;

Makes a plea to national and international organizations, human rights defenders and local political parties to press the Government of general Aziz to release these four activists and  apply the 0048 /2007 law pertaining to the criminalization of slavery in this proven case and many others pending in the Justice Department.”

Mauritania: 4 anti-slavery activists arrested for demanding emancipation of 3 slaves  (MJEM)

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