Two opposition members of parliament in Mauritania, Mariem Cheikh and Ghamou Achour, were imprisoned on 21 April after being indicted for posts made during live social media broadcasts in which they criticised the president and government. Both women belong to the IRA (Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste), Mauritania's leading anti-slavery movement, whose members are drawn largely from the Haratine community — descendants of formerly enslaved people who remain among the country's most marginalised. Prosecutors justified stripping the deputies of their parliamentary immunity by classifying their remarks as a flagrant offence against state institutions, a legal manoeuvre the IRA's leader, Biram Dah Abeid, has rejected as politically motivated; the organisation is also raising alarm over the detention conditions of Cheikh, who was jailed alongside her three-month-old infant.