Many thousands of Nigerian girls have been forced into prostitution in the nearby West African nation of Mali, the country's anti-human trafficking agency said on Wednesday.
“We are talking of thousands and thousands of girls,” said Simon Egede, the head of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons. “We are talking of certainly between 20 000 and about 40 000.”
He did not provide details on how he arrived at those numbers.
The trafficking of Nigerian girls for prostitution in various West African countries, as well as in Europe, has repeatedly drawn the scrutiny of authorities and rights organisations.
Rights groups say the girls are often lured with promises of legitimate jobs.
Egede said he led a team from his agency on a fact-minding mission to Mali this month following reports of slave camps populated by Nigerian girls in Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Libya, Morocco and Cape Verde.
He said the team confirmed that Nigerian madams trafficked the girls and were operating brothels in Mali.
According to Egede, the team saw “that the girls are held in bondage for the purposes of forced sexual exploitation and servitude or slavery-like practices.”
“The madams control their freedom of movement, where they work, when they work and what they receive,” he said.
“I visited two brothels and could not stand it anymore when I saw how the girls sat on two wooden platforms facing each other numbering about 40.”
Customers chose among the girls after paying, he said.
The agency called for West African regional bloc ECOWAS to urgently schedule a meeting of regional experts on trafficking.
Nigerian girls have also been forced into prostitution in Europe, including cases where gangs have allegedly used voodoo curses to threaten them. - Sapa-AFP