Mauritania: anti-slavery campaigner Biram Dah Abeid resigns from parliament
The opposition leader cited widespread corruption and said debate in the National Assembly had become pointless.
Biram Dah Abeid, the Mauritanian human rights defender and anti-slavery campaigner, has resigned his seat in the National Assembly, citing "pervasive mismanagement and corruption fostered by the current government".
Mr Abeid made the announcement on Monday during a televised plenary session devoted to the government's general policy statement, in the presence of the Prime Minister. He said parliamentary debate had "become pointless" and that corruption was widespread, "yet there is not a single person in prison charged with corruption". He pledged to continue to oppose the government "through legal means, through struggle and on the ground".
Mr Abeid leads the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), which campaigns against the persistence of slavery and related practices in Mauritania. He was first elected to parliament in 2018 while in detention, and was re-elected in May 2023 as part of an opposition alliance.
He has contested the presidency three times. In 2024 he finished second with 22 per cent of the vote, against 56 per cent for President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
A descendant of enslaved people, Mr Abeid has long challenged a political order dominated by citizens of Arab and Berber descent. The Mauritanian state has outlawed all forms of slavery but maintains that only its after-effects remain.