AFRICA'S TOP SLAVE HOLDING COUNTRIES... NIGERIA LEADS

An anti-slavery campaign group
says in a new report that Nigeria
has the highest number of
people living in what it describes
as "modern slavery" in Africa,
while Mauritania has Africa's –
and the world's – highest
number of "slaves" in proportion
to the total population.
The Walk Free Foundation,
founded by Australians,
published the first of what is
planned as an annual Global
Slavery Index in London on
Thursday.
The index estimates that Nigeria
has between 670,000 and
740,000 people living in modern
slavery. It says the figures for
Ethiopia are between 620,000
and 680,000 and for the
Democratic Republic of Congo
between 440,000 and 490,000.
Mauritania is named as having
140,000 to 160,000 living in
slavery, in a population of 3.8
million.
The foundation defines modern
slavery as including slavery as
customarily understood, human
trafficking, forced labour and
"slavery-like practices" such as
debt bondage, forced marriages
and sale or expoitation of
children.
"Victims of modern slavery," it
says, "have their freedom denied,
and are used and controlled and
exploited by another person for
profit, sex or the thrill of
domination."
Five African nations are among
the 10 nations identified as
having the highest prevalence of
modern slavery: Mauritania,
Benin (in 7th place
internationally), Cote d'Ivoire (8th
place), The Gambia (9th) and
Gabon (10th).
Non-African nations in the worst
10 are, in order below
Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India,
Nepal and Moldova.
Africa's worst 10 also include
Senegal, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone,
Togo and Cape Verde.
The report says Mauritania
experiences mostly "chattel
slavery" meaning that "adults and
children... are the full property of
their masters who exercise total
ownership over them and their
descendants." It also says there
are high levels of child marriage
in Mauritania.
While Cote d'Ivoire is cited as one
of the nations "working hard" to
address the problem, Mauritania
is one of the countries in which
the response is "token at best".
"In Cote d'Ivoire," the report says,
"a unique system of protection
has been formed, harnessing the
market forces of cocoa
purchasers as a mechanism to
drive overall improvement in
labour practices and move
towards the eradication of worst
forms of child labour and forced
labour in cocoa production