{{Benin has detained 10 people on suspicions of child-trafficking just weeks after a group in neighbouring Niger was held for links to a “baby factory” ring, police sources said on Tuesday.}}<\/p>\n
While it was not immediately clear if there was a connection between the two cases, the latest detentions point to the persistence of human trafficking across West Africa.<\/p>\n
“There have been around 10 people detained in the civil prison since last week,” said Ghislaine Bokovo, director of the Benin police force’s central office for child protection.<\/p>\n
Bokovo did not give further details of this case, such as the age of the children, citing judicial secrecy for an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
But she said trafficked children in the region were typically sold either for use in voodoo practices or to crooked adoption agencies.<\/p>\n
Martial Degbessou, from the Porto-Novo police division, said people operating in trafficking networks often purported to be holding children on behalf of a nongovernmental organisation.<\/p>\n
He said his division was familiar with the problem of child sales since his town is a stopover point for traffickers on the way to next-door Nigeria.<\/p>\n
“Once they (the children) arrive in Nigeria, they are sold at a very high price, often between 20 million CFA Francs ($41,000) and 30 million CFA Francs ($62,000) per child,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Authorities in Niger have detained 17 people, including wives of senior politicians, after an investigation by Niger’s police into 30 people suspected of acquiring new-born babies from “baby factories” in Nigeria, two legal sources said last month. <\/p>\n
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