(Mauritania) Half a million African slaves are at the heart of Mauritania’s presidential election
— Daily Telegraph reports: “More than half a million slaves are at the heart of a presidential election battle in the former French colony of Mauritania”
— “A year after she ran away from her master, Barakatu Mint Sayed prays that the election on July 18 will mark the beginning of the end of slavery in Mauritania.”
— “like thousands of other slaves and freed slaves across the Saharan country, her hopes are fixed on an inspirational candidate, a man born to slave parents who has sworn to put an end to the practice of ‘owning’ humans if he is elected president.”
— “That candidate is Messaoud Ould Boulkheir”…. “there are an estimated 600,000 slaves, almost one in five of the country’s 3.2 million people”