Following a series of brutal attacks on those born into servitude, United Nations’ human rights experts called for Mali to strengthen its grip on hereditary slavery, on Friday.
Slavery was abolished in colonial Mali in the year 1905, but the United Nations’ group of experts warned that a system still exists in Mali, in which people are forced to labour without compensation for families who enslaved their forefathers.
They claim that as the Malian law does not clearly criminalise this type of slavery, the violators are rarely prosecuted.
According to reports from the United Nations, in September, a group of people who were considered as slaves, were attacked by other Malians who opposed to them celebrating Independence Day.
The attacks lasted two days, killing one man and injuring at least 12 others. The attack was the seventh this year in the Kayes region, roughly 500 kilometres (310 miles) northwest of Bamako, the capital, experts stated.
They went on to say that the frequency with which such crimes occur in that area proved that descent-based enslavement is still tolerated in Mali by certain powerful politicians, traditional leaders, law enforcement personnel, and judicial authorities.
United Nations said that it had previously criticied those horiffic practies, and that the Malian government must act on those acts by beginning with abolishing impunity for attacks against the ‘slaves’.
According to the UN statement, at least 30 persons have been arrested on both sides, and authorities have initiated an investigation.
Authorities in Mali did not comment on the issue.
Slavery based on descent is also prevalent in Mali’s neighbours, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, which was the world’s last country to abolish slavery in 1981.
According to the report of Trafficking in Persons, from the State Department of America, issued in 2017, authorities in Mali prosecute most cases of hereditary slavery as misdemeanours. It was suggested that a 2012 anti-trafficking bill be amended to cover hereditary enslavement.
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