Mauritania: Call for the release of detained anti-slavery activists

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 17 December 2010 AI Index: AFR 38/004/2010 Mauritania: Call for the release of detained anti-slavery activists Amnesty International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of eight anti- slavery activists arrested 13 December 2010 in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, after denouncing the case of two young girls who they believed were being hel [...] The activists are all members of the Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste en Mauritanie (IRA, Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania), an NGO created and led by Biram Dah Ould Abeid, who is also a member of SOS Esclaves (SOS Slaves). [...] Several days ago, the IRA was alerted of the case of two young girls, aged nine and fourteen, who were allegedly being held in slavery in the house of a female civil servant. [...] Biram Dah Ould Abeid and other members of the NGO approached the prefect in the Nouakchott neighborhood of Arafat. [...] The police superintendent asked two IRA members to accompany the police to the home of the person alleged to be holding the two young girls in slavery.