100,000 are still in slavery in Mauritania, report says

About 10 percent of Mauritania's 1 million people are still slaves 20 years after independence, despite token efforts at emancipation, the Anti-Slavery Society told a UN panel.

Though the northwest African state's constitution bans slavery, this has had "little or no practical effect," the London-based abolitionist group said, noting that it is sometimes suggested that the economy is based on slavery and abolition would lead to the former French colony's collapse. The group estimated that 100,000 people are slaves and 300,000 are part or former slaves.