Africa Up Close

May 16, 2013

French Article Translation of the Week

“Une nouvelle “usine à bébés” découverte au Nigeria”

“C’est un nouveau cas de trafic d’enfants au Nigeria. La police a déclaré mercredi 15 mai avoir découvert lundi six adolescentes enceintes retenues dans une maison et arrêté trois personnes suspectées de vouloir vendre les futurs bébés.”

“This is a new case of child trafficking in Nigeria. On Wednesday, May 15, Police said that on Monday they discovered six pregnant teenagers held in a house and arrested three people suspected of trying to sell future babies.”

This article has been translated from French. Click here to read the original version on Le Monde.

“Informed by the intelligence services, we raided a house in Enugu where we found and freed six girls aged less than 17 years,” said Ebere Amaraizu, spokesman for the police in this region.

Two men and a woman suspected of being responsible for child trafficking were arrested during the operation, he said, and they are now cooperating with the police.

According to Amaraizu, the girls were “drawn into the house by the promise of receiving money” after childbirth. “The investigation will provide details. We need to know how they became pregnant and where they come from,” he added.

Several “Mill Babies” Already Discovered

This discovery comes five days after the release of 17 pregnant adolescents and 11 infants identified in a Umaka house in neighboring Imo State. The girls, aged 14 to 17 years, told the police that they had all been made pregnant by a young man of 23 years, currently in prison.

In a report on human trafficking published in April 2012, the European Union has ranked Nigeria as the country where this problem is most prevalent. This report indicates that the sale of children is common and that the police have discovered what may be called “baby factories”.

In May 2011, in Abia State, the police freed 32 pregnant girls. They indicated that they were offered between 25,000 and 30,000 naira (191 dollars), depending om the sex of their baby. Another group of 17 girls was discovered in October 2011 in Anambra State in similar circumstances.

UNESCO has designated the trafficking as third on its list of the most common crimes committed in Nigeria, after corruption and drug trafficking.

(Click here to read the full UN report.)