The following extract from the link in the first post.

According to the Anti-Slavery International organisation, up to 43,000 slaves in Niger perform gruelling work without pay and are routinely subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Activists hope that today's ceremony, which will be attended by slaves and their former masters, will trigger a series of similar events across the Saharan region.

Slavery in Niger was outlawed in 1991 and last year a constitutional amendment made slave ownership punishable by 30 years in prison. But up until today, the new rules were largely ignored. In the country's desert regions, government officials in the city and local chiefs in the desert still consider slave ownership to be a symbol of status and wealth.