Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid resigns from parliament

Prominent Mauritanian human rights activist and anti-slavery advocate Biram Dah Abeid announced his resignation from parliament Monday citing "widespread corruption" in the west African country, where he is an opposition lawmaker.

Abeid has run for president three times, and was defeated twice by current leader Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, who won by 56 percent to Abeid's 22 percent in 2024.

During a plenary session Monday which was broadcast on television, Abeid said his resignation was in protest of "pervasive mismanagement and corruption fostered by the current government," but did not provide in-depth details on his allegations.

"I will oppose the current regime through legal means, through struggle and on the ground," Abeid said, adding that "debates within the current parliament have become pointless."

Abeid leads the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), which denounces the persistence of slavery and slavery-linked practices in Mauritania.

Speaking at a plenary session focused on the government's general policy statement, which was attended by the prime minister, Abeid sharply criticised the current government's performance and said that corruption was "widespread yet there is not a single person in prison charged with corruption."

Abeid was first elected to parliament in 2018 while in prison. He was re-elected in May 2023 as part of an opposition alliance.

Abeid is among the descendants of black slaves elected to parliament in a country where politics is dominated by people of Arab and Berber descent.

The Mauritanian state, which has legislated against all forms of slavery, denies slavery existence and maintains that only its after-effects remain