Authorities last week approved a Muslim demonstration against the Christian presence in a town in southern Mauritania, saying protesters excavated Christian bodies and dragged them onto the streets.
According to the advocacy group Middle East Concerns (MEC), Christians in Seribaby remain horrible following an April 7 demonstration with a social media threat to burn Christian-owned homes.
“Christians in Seribaby have serious concerns about their safety and livelihoods as hatred continues by prominent religious and community leaders,” reads the MEC publishing voice.
A Muslim mob went to the cemetery, smashed the deceased Christian gravestone, excavated his body, dragged it on the street, took it to a village far beyond Seribaby, where it was reburied at another site, according to the MEC.
“By the evening the tension had eased, but social media posts describing Christians as pagans and apostates encouraged ‘action’ the next day and intensified the next day,” the MEC said. “They called for the full expulsion of Christians. Some of their leaders have been warned by their clans and relatives not to contact them. The situation remains unstable.”
Authorities announced Tuesday (April 8) that security guards in the area have been fired following an investigation into the protest.
Advocacy Group’s Jubilee Campaign has seen videos promoted sec appear on social media, reported by Cridem, a screenshot from Mauritania’s leading French news portal.
Following international protests that led to the fire of security authorities in Mauritania’s human rights advocate, Seyf Mukaithir said the action was insufficient as authorities had not allowed the erupted Christian body to be rebuilt in the same place.
“He is far from the cemetery 30km from the city and from the regular cemetery,” Mkhaitir said according to the Jubilee campaign. “Mauritania is a very dangerous country for the deceased and for non-Muslims.”
Mukeichir, who was sentenced to death for “apostasy” for his activities in 2014 and was sentenced to prison for six years before his sentence was commuting under international pressure, said the UN states must hold countries such as Mauritania responsible.
“In spite of the UN treaties they signed, countries that still practice apostasy and blasphemous ASP laws will not continue to violate the treaty unless they are convinced that all of those contracts and treaties are on paper,” he said. “And they continue to be on paper, and people continue to suffer in prisons and gallows, unless some actual mechanisms encourage them to adhere to the practices they have signed, regardless of the country’s status in the international economics of the country.”
Mauritania is one of at least 11 countries that have the death penalty of apostasy or blasphemy, but there is a pause above it, the Jubilee Campaign says.
“The fact that Chek does not prevent him from dying in 2014 continues to use the law to threaten Christian converts and other non-Muslims with silence and eradication,” the Jubilee Campaign states. “Mauritania’s repeated cosmetic adjustments after pressure are proof that the country wants to be accepted on the world stage.”
Some states are interested in maintaining good relations with Mauritania, which exports iron, fish, oil, gold and copper to China and exports to Japan, Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy and Germany, Jubilee said. The NATO delegation recently met with Mauritanian officials to discuss bilateral security and military cooperation, the group added.
“Recent action at Seribaby is an imminent example of a fragmented solution not enough,” the Jubilee Campaign said. “The death penalty of apostasy and blasphemy must be abolished completely, due to the recognition of the rights and protection of all citizens of Christians, non-Muslims and Mauritania, otherwise we will return to another Seribaby.
Article 306 of Mauritania’s 2018 Criminal Code states, “If Muslims are explicitly apostate from Islam, they are imprisoned for three days to abandon waiving anything they know that they need or include it, or that they know that religion is mandatory, and during that time he is asked to be promoted, he will be promoted, Muslim.”
According to the State Department’s 2022 Religious Freedom Report, Mauritania’s laws and legal procedures stem from a mixture of French civil law and Sharia (Islamic law), but there was a call to increase the application of the country’s Sharia-based criminal law.
“The law prohibits apostasy and blasphemy,” the report said. “The criminal law requires the death penalty of Muslims convicted of apostasy or blasphemy, but the government has never applied apostasy or blasphemy.”
Faith-based non-governmental organizations must refrain from converting or promoting non-Islam religions, and the government must pre-approve all group meetings “including those held in non-Islamic religious meetings and private homes.”
At the same time, non-Muslim religious leaders said the government would not normally prevent such groups from holding religious gatherings in private spaces, the report said. He added that while possession of non-Islamic religious materials remained legal, the government continued to ban printing and distribution.
Mauritania is the party of the International Contract on International and Political Rights (ICCPR) of the “ICCPR” which provides all people with the freedom to adopt religion or belief, or freedom to adopt belief or belief,” according to the Religious Freedom Report.
“The licensed churches were able to provide services within the facility, but were unable to convert,” the report states. “The requirement for informal government limits non-Islamic worship for a small number of recognized Christian churches.”
In late 2023, authorities arrested several Christians in the Seribaby area after a baptismal video urged Muslims to seek punishment. At least 15, and perhaps 18 Christians, along with their families, were arrested, and by December 18, 2023, they were all released.
At least three Christians were arrested on November 30, 2023, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of the capital city, according to the Spanish news service EFE. The arrests stem from protests calling for Christians to be killed after a baptismal video appeared on social media, according to local Christian leaders.
Mauritania ranked 23rd on the Open Door 2025 World Watchlist in the country’s most difficult to become a Christian.
