Slavery still alive in Mauritania [Morning Call]

An estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery,” according to the United Nations.

Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981, the last country to do so, and criminalized it in 2007. There have been just four prosecutions of slave-owners in its history, with dozens of cases currently in courts.

Africanews correspondent Moulaye Najim reports on slavery alleged occuring within the Soninke community in the Senegal River Valley region about 500 kilometres from the capital Nouakchott.