Bissau police arrest three child traffickers
Guinea Bissau soldiers on a street in Bissau. Police rescued the children aged between four and 11 including three girls during a routine patrol, local media reports said Sunday. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Police sources said the three child traffickers also arrested, must have got the backing of village chiefs.
- Over a million of such children or ‘talibés’ are enrolled into the Koranic schools but spend the whole begging for virtually anything in the streets for their masters.
Police in Guinea Bissau are trying to reunite 61 children with their parents after they were rescued from three child traffickers.
Police rescued the children aged between four and 11 including three girls during a routine patrol, local media reports said Sunday.
The children were retrieved at a checkpoint about 100 kilometers from the capital, Bissau as they were being smuggled in two trucks to several Koranic schools or ‘daaras’ in Gambia and Senegal.
Sources said many of the children were sick and feeble ostensibly due to hunger and lack of rest at the time of their rescue last Thursday.
Police inspector Franciso N’dur Djata told reporters that the child traffickers used the pretext that they were going to send the children to a school that offered free education.
Police sources said the three child traffickers also arrested, must have got the backing of village chiefs.
Meanwhile, Unicef officials took the children from the police and are camping them in a town called Buba while arrangements were completed to reunite the children with their parents. Police said they suspect that the children originated from the central region of Tombali -300 kilometres from Bissau- since they all spoke the same language.
Over a million of such children or ‘talibés’ are enrolled into the Koranic schools but spend the whole begging for virtually anything in the streets for their masters.
