The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the arrest of Mauritanian students at the University of Nouakchott and calls for their immediate release.
On March 20, 2025, President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani presided over a fast-breaking banquet (iftar) held on the university campus. The event, intended as a moment of engagement between the Head of State and the student body, was marred by tensions after a group of students were deliberately excluded.
The excluded students, members of the National Union of Students of Mauritania (ANEM), had been leading a months-long campaign demanding the payment of overdue university scholarships. Their exclusion from the presidential event sparked angry demonstrations on campus, with students denouncing a pattern of exclusion and the government’s failure to engage in meaningful dialogue. For many, the president’s visit was a rare opportunity to voice their grievances directly.
Security forces were deployed to the campus to control the protests, and several students were arrested during the operation. The arrested students are currently being prosecuted by the public prosecutor at the Western Nouakchott court under various legal provisions, including the Penal Code, the cybercrime law, and the controversial law on the protection of national symbols, a statute frequently criticised for curbing freedom of expression.
It is deeply troubling that in a country governed by the rule of law, students seeking to assert a basic right (access to scholarships) are subjected to judicial repression. The use of repressive laws to prosecute peaceful protesters only reinforces the perception that the government prioritises image management over responding to the legitimate demands of its youth.
The MFWA urges the Mauritanian authorities to immediately release the detained students and to prioritise constructive dialogue with student groups. The rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression must be respected and upheld as essential pillars of democracy.