Anti-Slavery organization- IRA Mauritania condemns it's leaders arrest

Anti-Slavery organization- IRA Mauritania said the government was seeking to undermine the organization’s credibility by implicating it in a violent incident which erupted in a slum in Nouakchott between angry protesters and police last Wednesday.

Five of IRA’s leaders were arrested during an eviction exercise in a slum neighbourhood, Ksar, which, according to authorities, was illegally built on private land.

Angry protesters clashed with the police, wielding knives and throwing stones at the police.

IRA, said it denounces the eviction which it has described as “an act of intimidation” to black communities in Mauritania, particularly Haratins, descendants of Moorish slaves.

Most of the residents who were living in Ksar were Haratins.

According to the IRA, the community had an agreement with the owners of the land that they would be resettled on a land offered by the state.

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