Niger: Attempts to end slavery

"I was my mistress's slave - that was my identity," says Assibit, 50, who ran away from her master in June of this year. After walking 30 kilometres to the nearest village, she was taken by locals to the Timidria office in Abalak. Assibit was born into slavery - as was her mother, her husband and her five children. The government says it is trying to clamp down on slavery - and has introduced laws so that slave owners can be punished - but still there are estimated to be tens of thousands of people in Niger in bonded labour.