Mauritanian authorities have arrested two opposition members of parliament, Mariem Mint Cheikh and Ghame Achour Salem, within 24 hours in Nouakchott, in connection with social media videos criticising President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.
The first arrest is that of Mariem Mint Cheikh, member of parliament and member of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA). She was arrested on the night of April 9, 2026 at her home in the southern suburbs of Nouakchott, the capital city.
According to local media and information provided by the IRA leadership to the Media Foundation for West Africa, she was arrested around 10 p.m. local time by agents from the Cybercrime Unit, along with her three-month-old baby.
The following day, Ghame Achour Salem, also a member of parliament and a member of the IRA, was arrested at her home on April 10, shortly after participating in a protest outside the Cybercrime Unit’s offices a few hours earlier, demanding the release of her fellow parliamentarian.
Their arrests are reportedly linked to a video in which they criticised the President of the Republic, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and denounced discrimination and the detention conditions of certain activists.
Despite their status as members of parliament and the parliamentary immunity they enjoy, they were arrested under Law No. 2021-021 on the Protection of National Symbols and the Criminalisation of Attacks on the Authority of the State and the Honor of the Citizen. It is a criminal law adopted in 2021 against the criminalisation of attacks on the Authority of the State in Mauritanian. But this law has been widely criticised for its impact on freedom of expression and public debate.
Mariem Mint Cheikh and Ghame Achour Salem are not the first to bear the consequences of this law. Other activists and political figures, including Ablaye Ba, Seydina Aly Ould Mohamed Khouna, Sidi Mohamed Ould Bedki have previously faced similar repercussions.
On April 13, in a statement posted on Facebook, the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) condemned these arrests, describing them as harassment of IRA members.
Meanwhile, a Mauritanian opposition parliamentary group demanded the immediate release of MP Mariem Mint Cheikh, arguing that her arrest had taken place “without respecting the procedural safeguards related to parliamentary immunity.”
The Media Foundation for West Africa condemns the arrest of the two lawmakers. It escalates the narrowing of civic space which has been observed in recent years in Mauritania. The MFWA calls on the authorities to respect the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution in its Article 10, and to proceed with the immediate and unconditional release of the two parliamentarians.
