Huge, rainbow crowd, crowded corridors, packed room, loud speeches and crazy atmosphere inside and outside the former Nouakchott Youth Center! These are the ingredients which accompanied on Wednesday April 24, 2024, the solemn announcement of the candidacy of Birame Dah Abeid in the presidential election next June.
@Credit IRA (with authorization)
After 2014 and 2019, the deputy, president of anti-slavery movement IRA, recipient of several international human rights awards, including the prestigious United Nations PrizeBirame Dah Abeid, announced, Wednesday April 24, 2024 in Nouakchott, his candidacy for the presidential election on June 29.
The ambient decor
Several hours before this announcement, the crowd poured into the old Youth Center in clusters. Coming from the nine departments of Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, Zouerate, Gorgol, and several other regions and localities of the country, hundreds of experienced activists and old and newly acquired sympathizers to the cause of the Harratine leader, had converged in the early hours of the afternoon of April 24 to the gathering place.
@Credit IRA (with authorization)
In the middle of the delirious crowd, folkloric demonstrations, dances, cries of joy. A slogan quite revealing of the great change that is taking shape had come from hundreds of lips: “The people are calling for you, O Birame, Black and White! »
Young men and girls took advantage of the opportunity to immortalize the moment under the discreet flash of a few cameras or through the silent crackling of smartphones.
Several leaders and heads of political movements, women’s and youth movements, notables, executives and intellectuals of various persuasions, had taken the front ranks. Behind, endless layers of activists of the slavery cause, masses impatient for change, an electric atmosphere which had transformed the auditorium into a show streaked by a human tide, variegated and colorful, in a miniature representation of plural Mauritania .
Around 5 p.m., the car carrying Birame Dah Abeid, draped in a blue boubou, standing with his hands raised to greet the immense crowd gathered at his feet, had difficulty making its way.
@Credit IRA (with authorization)
Militant fervor rose to the sky in a dull rumble, accompanying the anti-slavery leader in his slow progression towards the enclosure of the large hall, crowded even in the aisles. A few handshakes with leaders and political leaders, religious leaders, executives and staff of sister organizations, favorable to his candidacy. The floor where a furnished desk stood, stormed by a slew of journalists and bloggers, intermingled in a battle of microphones, left little room for the technical staff and the candidate’s close guard. The flashes of dozens of cameras streaked the scene thus camped.
@Credit IRA (with authorization)
The novelty in this announced candidacy of Birame Dah Abeid is the adherence to his cause of Bidhane community who understood that the candidate’s political program is inclusive and that he advocates a Mauritania where all citizens will enjoy the same respect. This is the case of several resignations from the ruling INSAF party, like the young Moulaye Ismaël Baba.
The speech
Birame Dah Abeid’s speech was eagerly awaited, especially since he had the intuition to wink at the victims of the injustice which has recently struck some families of the Moorish component, such as imprisonment from the blogger, filmmaker and director Old Savraor that of the former senator and president of the NGO Transparence Inclusive Old Ghaddeboth victims according to him of the shenanigans of those in power.
@Credit IRA (with authorization)
He called for the release of all innocent people currently in prison, like the young entrepreneur Saadbouh, victim of a cabal on the part of unfair competitors with the support of the authorities. He also denounced the injustice towards President Aziz and his community, maintaining that if he comes to power, he will sponsor the review of the trial of the former president who remained the only one targeted in a process which managed to clear more than 300 people, former dignitaries of his regime, also involved in the mismanagement.
He also pointed out the mismanagement and corruption which are plaguing the country, depicted through the soap opera Son Excellence by director Ould Savra, a series of which two episodes had been broadcast on public television before being arrested, because it exposes the ambient prevarication of the Mauritanian state. He also invited the blogger Sidi Ould Kmache, one of the biggest Mauritanian influencers abroad, and Yacoub Ould Sidiya, another influencer, to bury the legal hatchet which opposes them to the USA, maintaining that their quarrel cannot not benefit the country.
He declared that his confrontation with the candidate of power, President Ould Ghazouani, is a fight against bad governance and injustice, a fight for the emergence of a truly democratic, egalitarian, just and well-governed country. .
Sheikh Aidara