Former slave Habi Rabah Ahmed joins Mauritania’s Parliament
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Kassataya
Habi Rabah Ahmed, a former victim of slavery and an anti-slavery activist, now sits in Mauritania’s National Assembly after replacing MP Mariem Cheikh Dieng. Freed in 2008 after more than three decades in servitude, she had already tried to win a seat in the 2018 legislative elections, according to Kassataya.
Habi Rabah Ahmed, a former victim of slavery who became an anti-slavery activist, now sits in Mauritania’s National Assembly after replacing MP Mariem Cheikh Samba Dieng. She spoke in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday 27 October, according to Kassataya.
During her speech, Habi Rabah Ahmed expressed solidarity with former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, detainees linked to the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) and General Labatt Ould Maayouf. She also denounced displaced people’s lack of access to education, water, electricity and healthcare, and criticised recourse to new loans.
Enslaved from the age of five, according to testimony reported by BBC Afrique in July 2018, Habi Rabah Ahmed was freed in 2008 after more than three decades in servitude. She subsequently joined the abolitionist struggle and stood in the 2018 legislative elections on the national list of the Sawab–IRA coalition.
Her entry into the National Assembly comes after the removal of two Mauritanian MPs from office, confirmed by the Constitutional Council on 1 October 2026. Their appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on 29 September, making their convictions and the deprivation of their civil and political rights for five years final.
