Christians in area of Mauritania fear for their lives after protests against their presence

Originally published in Christian Daily International

Authorities last week approved a demonstration by Muslims against the presence of Christians in a town of southern Mauritania that resulted in protesters exhuming the body of a Christian and dragging it through the streets, sources said.

Christians in Sélibaby remain fearful following the April 7 demonstrations accompanied by threats on social media to burn down Christian-owned homes, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).

“Christians in Sélibaby have grave concerns for their safety and lives as the incitement of hate against them by prominent religious and community leaders continues,” a MEC press statement read.

An Islamist mob went to a cemetery, broke the tombstone of the deceased Christian and exhumed his body, then dragged it in the streets before bringing it to a village far outside Sélibaby, where it was reburied at another site, according to MEC.

“Tensions eased by evening, but social media posts describing Christians as infidels and apostates, urging ‘action’ against them, intensified the following day,” MEC stated. “They called for a total ostracism of Christians. Some of the leaders have been warned by their clans and relatives, not to contact them. The situation remains volatile.”

Authorities on Tuesday (April 8) announced that security leaders in the area were fired following an investigation into the protests.

Advocacy group Jubilee Campaign reported that videos promoting the desecration appeared on social media, along with screenshots of it on the main French-language news portal in Mauritania, CRIDEM, which “show the three to five main perpetrators of the exhumation dragging the body while the co-conspirators and onlookers crowd around to record.”

Following the international outcry that resulted in the firing of security officials in Sélibaby, a human rights advocate in Mauritania, Cheikh Mkhaitir, said the action was insufficient, as authorities had not permitted the exhumed Christian’s body to be reburied in the same place.

“He is reburied 30 kilometres from the city, far from a normal cemetery,” Mkhaitir said, according to Jubilee Campaign. “Mauritania is a country that is very dangerous for non-Muslims, even for the deceased.”

Mkhaitir, who was sentenced to death for “apostasy” in 2014 for his activism and held in prison for six years before his sentence was commuted under international pressure, said U.N. members states must hold countries such as Mauritania accountable.

“The countries that still practice laws of apostasy and blasphemy – in spite of the U.N. 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,” he said. “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.”

Mauritania is among at least 11 countries with the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy, though it has a moratorium in place on it, Jubilee Campaign noted.

“It has not stopped them from sentencing Cheikh to death in 2014 and continues to use the law to threaten Christian converts and other non-Muslims with silence and eradication,” Jubilee Campaign stated. “Mauritania’s repeated cosmetic adjustments after pressure are evidence that the country desires acceptance on the world stage.”

Several states have an interest in maintaining good relations with Mauritania, which exports iron, fish, oil, gold and copper to China as well as to Japan, Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and others, Jubilee stated. A delegation from NATO recently met with Mauritanian officials to discuss bilateral security and military cooperation, the group added.

“The recent action in Sélibaby is a pressing example that piecemeal solutions are not enough,” Jubilee Campaign stated. “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. Otherwise, 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.”

Mauritania’s 2018 Amendment to Penal Code Article 306 states that “any Muslim who explicitly apostatizes from Islam, or who says or does something that would require or include that, or who renounces what he knows to be required by the religion, shall be imprisoned for three days, during which time he will be asked to repent. If he does not repent, he will be sentenced to death for blasphemy, and his property will be transferred to the treasury of the Muslims.”

Mauritania’s laws and legal procedures derive from a mix of French civil law and sharia (Islamic law), but there have been calls from the public for increased application of the country’s sharia-based criminal code, according to the State Department’s 2022 religious freedom report.

“The law prohibits apostasy and blasphemy,” the report states. “The criminal code mandates a death sentence for any Muslim convicted of apostasy or blasphemy, but the government has never applied capital punishment for apostasy or blasphemy.”

Faith-based Non-Governmental Organizations must refrain from proselytizing or otherwise promoting any religion other than Islam, and the government must pre-approve all group meetings, “including non-Islamic religious gatherings and those held in private homes,” according to the report.

At the same time, non-Muslim religious leaders stated the government typically does not prevent such groups from holding religious gatherings in private spaces, the report notes. Possession of non-Islamic religious materials remained legal, although the government continued to prohibit their printing and distribution, it adds.

Although Mauritania is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides everyone the “freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief” of their choice, the government continued to ban any public expression of religion except that of Islam, according to the religious freedom report.

“Authorized churches were able to conduct services within their premises but could not proselytize,” the report states. “An unofficial government requirement restricted non-Islamic worship to the few recognized Christian churches.”

In late 2023 authorities arrested several Christians in the Sélibaby area after a video of a baptism ceremony prompted Muslims to call for their punishment. At least 15 and possibly as many as 18 Christians were arrested along with their families, and by Dec. 18, 2023, they had all been released.

At least three of the Christians were initially arrested on or shortly before Nov. 30, 2023 in Selibaby, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of the capital city of Nouakchott, according to Spanish news service EFE. The arrests stemmed from protests calling for Christians to be killed after a video of a baptism ceremony appeared in social media, according to Christian leaders in the region.

Mauritania ranked 23rd on Open Doors 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

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