Nigeria police hold slave trade suspect

Poverty has added to the problem of child slavery

By the BBC's Sunita Nahar

A man has been arrested in Nigeria in what could be one of the most flagrant cases of child-trafficking in Africa.

Police said the man, Roger Chukwu, who is based in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, was taken into custody after two drivers carrying more than 150 children on their trucks confessed they had been working for him.

The drivers were caught by the police in the south-eastern state of Anambra.

The pair were taking the children - aged between 10 and 15 - to Lagos, from where they were apparently going to be sold off as labour to neighbouring West African countries.

Traditional family ties have been weakened - adding to the risks

Children as young as five are being forced into labour across the continent of Africa. Many of them end up as domestic servants, street sellers or prostitutes.

It is not unknown for girls to be made to work as servants by day and as prostitutes by night.

Traumatic journeys

Welfare agencies that have rescued some of these children say they are taken in large numbers across borders without food or water for a journey that can last weeks.

Those who reach their destination arrive traumatised, only to face a long day - each day - of toil and labour.

The trade in child slaves is thought to be highly organised and often done with the consent of the children's parents.

A major international conference earlier this year in Gabon said it was virtually impossible to estimate how many children in West and Central Africa were being sold by their families to middlemen and then sent to work in richer countries.

Persistent problem

Official statistics show that more than 30% of the 250 million children working around the world are in Africa, and 40% of them are forced into labour.

The problem, however, looks unlikely to go away.

African governments, faced with other more pressing social and economic troubles - in some cases even war - appear to be continuing to ignore the plight of millions of their children.