Washington DC, USA- 11 April 2025 | Jubilee Campaign calls on Mauritania to protect its Christians in Sélibaby, following mass protests by Muslim locals calling for the eradication of Christian converts, as reported by Middle East Concern.
The authorities of Sélibaby – the capital of the southernmost region of Mauritania – approved a demonstration on 7 April 2025, which was instigated by prominent religious and community leaders in the area. Before and during the protest, threats against Christians were made, including calling on young Muslim faithful to burn down Christians’ homes. During the protest, an angry mob – composed mainly of young men – marched to the main cemetery, broke the tombstone of a deceased Christian and exhumed the body. Middle East Concern reports how the body was, “dragged in the streets and brought to a village 20 km outside of Sélibaby, where it was reburied.”
Cemetary in Sélibaby, Mauritania.
Videos documenting the desecration were recorded and promoted on social media. Screenshots published by CRIDEM, a leading French-speaking news portal site in Mauritania, show three to five of the main perpetrators dragging the body while the accomplices and onlookers crowd around to film the incident on their cell phones. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has made clear that desecration of cemeteries constitutes a violation of religious freedom, “cemeteries, like places of worship and other holy sites, are an essential element of the manifestation of the right to freedom of religion or belief [enshrined in Article 18 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights].”
In response to the news, Cheikh Mkhaitir, a prominent Human Rights Defender now exiled from his home country Mauritania, expressed sorrow and distress over the news, “Mauritania is a country that is very dangerous for non-Muslims – even for the deceased.” Cheikh does not take solace in the Mauritanian authorities action the next day – which only came after international outcry – resulting in the removal of security officials in Sélibaby, “This [the firing of local security officials] was due to the pressure […] but at the same time the authority has not given permission for the person to be reburied in the same place. He is reburied 30 km from the city, far from a normal cemetery.”
Cheikh Mkhaitir is all too familiar with the Mauritanian authorities’ focus on damage control over genuine human rights reforms. In 2014 – authorities sentenced him to death for apostasy for challenging the countries racist and pro-slavery laws. Following international pressure, after three years, in 2017, the death sentence was commuted to a prison sentence of two years. Instead of being released, however, authorities continued to arbitarily detained Cheikh for nearly six years, under conditions that meet the threshold for inhumane and degrading treatment in violation of the Convention Against Torture, to which Mauritania acceeded to in 2004 and ratified the Optional Protocol in 2012.
Mauritania remains one of the remaining 11 countries which sanction the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy under its Penal Code Article 306. While Mauritania has a moratorium on the death penalty it has not stopped them from sentencing Cheikh to death in 2014, and the country continues to use the law to threaten Christian converts and other non-Muslims with silence and eradication.
Mauritania’s repeated cosmetic adjustments following external pressure suggest a desire for acceptance on the world stage. Several countries have an interest in maintaining good relations with Mauritania – most recently a delegation from NATO met with the government to discuss bilateral security and military cooperation. In trade Mauritania exports iron, fish, oil, gold and copper to China but also Japan, Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and additional countries.
Cheikh has made clear that nothing will change, unless international mechanisms and UN member states, who recognise the human dignity of every person, hold these states accountable: “The countries that still practice laws of apostasy and blasphemy – in spite of the UN conventions that they signed – would not continue to violate the conventions unless they were sure that all those agreements and conventions are on paper only. And, they will continue to be on paper only, and people will continue to suffer in prisons and even the gallows, unless – some real mechanism pushes these countries to adhere to the conventions they have signed, irrespective of the country’s status in international economics. Only if we cease from double standards, and the using of international agreements and conventions as a tool for blackmail rather than a mechanism to guarantee the human right of freedom of belief and opinion.”
The recent action in Sélibaby is a stark reminder that piecemeal solutions are not enough. The death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy needs to be repealed completely for the recognition of the rights and protection of Christians, non-Muslims and all the citizens of Mauritania. Without systemic change we will return to another Sélibaby – another youth robbed of six years of his life and even an extrajudicial execution. Temporary security and trade deals are not worth the suffering of generations.
Photo: Flag of Mauritania via pixabay, in adherence to their content license.