Jailed for refusing to abandon their land

Oumar Dia, Abdoulaye Aliou, Aliou Dia and Thièrno Amadou have been jailed in Dar El Barka because they refused to sign documents renouncing ownership of their ancestral lands.

They were working on the land on November 7, which was recently irrigated, when heavily armed police came to arrest them.

Four other peasant landowners were arrested […]

Supreme Court Appeal in Mauritania: Effort to Up-End Two Year Prison Term

The lawyers’ collective for the defense of Biram Dah Abeid, Djiby Sow and Brahim Bilal Ramdhane today announced in a press conference that they would appeal the recent ruling that upheld the two year prison sentence for these three men.

These anti-slavery activists were sentenced for resisting public order in an anti-slavery demonstration on November […]

PRISON for Biram and Brahim; 2 Year Sentence Upheld in Aleg

Today, August 20th 2015, the appeals court in Aleg upheld a two year prison sentence for the president of IRA, Biram Dah Abeid, for the Vice President, Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, and for the president of Kawtal, Djiby Sow. See Al-Jazeera report on this ruling. See IRA – Mauritanie press release on the court of appeals […]

Suffering in Prison: President of Kawtal Kidney Failure

Djiby Sow, president of Kawtal and the chief organizer of the Anti-Slavery Caravan in October and November 2014, is suffering from kidney disease while in prison in Nouakchott.

Mr. Sow was arrested on November 11, 2014, while leading the anti-slavery Caravan in the out-lying districts of Rosso, Mauritania. He was the only non-IRA member arrested. […]