MODERN-day slavery is rife in Africa, with 15 countries in the top 20 global index of worst performers out of 162 countries.Modern slavery takes many forms, including human trafficking, forced labour and other slavery-like practices such as debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, as well as sale or exploitation of children in armed conflicts.An estimated 29-million people are living in slave conditions in the world, and three-quarters of them are in Asia. In absolute numbers, India is the worst performer, with 14.7-million enslaved people.The inaugural Global Slavery Index, published by the Walk Free Foundation, an organisation that aims to end modern-day slavery, was published on Thursday. The index measures the extent of modern slavery by country, and is expected to be published annually.Mauritania, ranked number one on the index, has a population of 3.8-million, but it has 150,000 slaves. It was described by the report as having "deeply entrenched hereditary slavery".Four other...
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