More than 1,000 anti-slavery campaigners from across West Africa are meeting in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, in a renewed effort to eradicate the ongoing practice of slavery, reports BBC Africa. 

Hereditary racial slavery – similar to the slavery system that existed in the U.S. prior to the civil war – is still widespread in the West African nation of Mauritania where White Arabs and Berbers have enslaved Black Africans for centuries.

Even though Mauritania abolished slavery 40 years ago, it remains rooted in society, with thousands of women and children from the Haratin ethnic group still living in slave-like conditions; many enslaved children are given away as gifts and never know their families. 

Out of 4.75 million citizens, Global Slavery Index estimates the number living in hereditary slavery in the country to be 90,000 people. 

In a rare public comment on the issue, Mauritania's human rights commissioner Cheikh Ahmedou Ould Sidi told delegates that fighting the practice was a constant and irreversible priority for the authorities which are determined to eliminate slavery and end discrimination.

The subject of slavery is rarely discussed publicly in Mauritania which makes this conference a breakthrough. 

Under successive governments more anti-slavery campaigners were being locked up than slave owners.