NIAMEY (AFP) — The community court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Friday announced October 27 as the date for its verdict on an anti-slavery case brought against the state of Niger by a former slave, the presiding judge said Friday.
"The verdict will be handed down on October 27, 2008, in Niamey," Aminata Malle-Sanogo said.
24-year-old Adidjatou Mani Koraou, a Niger national and a former slave, is suing the government of her vast, largely arid country on the southern edge of the Sahara for failing to enforce anti-slavery laws.
The high-profile case has rekindled a row between the Niamey authorities who deny the practice still exists in the mainly Muslim country, and activists who say Niger is home to some 800,000 slaves.
Koraou was sold to a Tuareg slave trader when she was 12 for the equivalent of 366 euros (567 dollars) and then sold to be the fifth wife of a traditional healer in central Niger, said Ilguilas Weila, who heads Timidria, Niger's only local anti-slavery group.
"I really hope the court will make the right decision so that I can triumph over these people (the slave masters)," said Koraou, who is asking for 50 million African CFA francs (76,200 euros / 118,100 dollars) in damages.
The ECOWAS court normally limits itself to warning member states about how they should be behaving in view of their engagements towards the outside world. It can however order reparations to be made and damages to be paid.
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