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Burkina Faso nabs child traffickers
18/05/2001 10:49 - (SA)
Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso authorities have detained seven suspected child traffickers caught with 23 children recruited on the promise of 60 000 CFA francs and a bicycle, security forces said on Thursday.
The children, aged between 11 and 14, had been recruited to work in cotton plantations in neighbouring Benin and were stopped heading towards the border on Tuesday, gendarmerie commander Djibril Lalle told Reuters.
They were discovered on Tuesday in the town of Fada, some 230km east of the capital Ouagadougou, he said.
"We are surprised by the scale of this problem in the region," Lalle said.
World attention was drawn to child trafficking in West Africa last month when Benin authorities sparked a hunt for a ship suspected of carrying up to 250 child slaves. Aid workers later said 13 of 40 children on board were being trafficked.
The UN children's agency UNICEF says that every year 200 000 children in West and Central Africa are involved in the illegal trade in minors forced to work on plantations or as domestic servants for little or no money.
- Reuters
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