Thousands of trafficked girls found in Mali slave camps

Nigerian girls are being forced to work as prostitutes in Mali "slave camps," Nigerian officials say.

The girls, many of them underage, are often promised jobs in Europe but end up in brothels, said the government's anti-trafficking agency.

According to BBC correspondent, the brothels are run by older Nigerian women who prevent them from leaving and take all their earnings.

Nigeria's National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) said officials visited Mali in September to follow up "horrendous reports" from victims, aid workers and clergy in Mali.The agency said it was working with Malian police to free the girls and help them return to Nigeria.

They said there were hundreds of brothels, each housing up to 200 girls, run by Nigerian "madams" who force them to work against their will and take their earnings.

"We are talking of thousands and thousands of girls," Simon Egede, Executive Secretary of Naptip, told a news conference in Abuja, adding that they were between 20,000 to 40,000.

He, however, did not give details as to how the figure had been reached.

In a statement, Egede said girls were "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.

The trade is centred on the capital Bamako and large cities, but the most notorious brothels are in the mining towns of Kayes and Mopti, where the sex workers live in "near slavery conditions," said Naptip.

Many of the brothels there also had abortion clinics where foetuses were removed by traditional healers for use in rituals, said Egede.

Most of the girls were reported to have come from Delta and Edo States in Nigeria.

Many were lured with the promise of work in Europe, given fake travel documents and made to swear an oath that they would not tell anyone where they were going.

On arrival in Mali, they were told they would have to work as prostitutes to pay off their debts. Prostitution is legal in Mali but not if it involves minors.

Naptip said it had also uncovered two major trafficking routes used to transport the women from Nigeria through Benin, Niger and Bukina Faso to Mali.

Egede said Naptip was working with the police in Mali to return the girls to Nigeria safely, shut down the trade and prosecute the traffickers.

CISA

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Sixteen child hostages freed

Sixteen children who were kidnapped in Nigeria earlier this week have been freed. Police say no ransom was paid, and none of them were hurt. It's believed they were released in a joint police and military operation.

Police say some of the kidnappers were killed, and the rest are being pursued.

The hijacking occurred on Monday on the outskirts of the city of Aba in Nigeria's oil-rich south. Police have said the gunmen ordered the bus driver to stop at gunpoint before taking the children who studied at Abayi International School.

The authorities have said all the children, believed to be between three and 10-years-old, were Nigerian. Kidnappers had demanded a 20 million naira (95,650 euros) ransom, and parents of some of the children on Thursday begged the abductors to release them, saying they could not afford to pay the amount.

The hijacking signalled a disturbing escalation in the spate of kidnappings that had already provoked fear in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, while also drawing widespread condemnation in Nigeria.

Just last week, doctors in Aba state had gone on strike over what they said was the kidnap and murder of one of their colleagues. Much of the city was shut down this week after the hijacking out of fears of further such attacks, and the military patrolled the streets on Thursday.

Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region has seen scores of kidnappings in recent years.

President Goodluck Jonathan, running in elections to be held early next year, called the hijacking "utterly callous and cruel" and pledged action to free the victims. The children's release comes as the country celebrated 50 years of independence.

RFI

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Nigeria at 50: What does Naija mean?

The word Naija aptly captures the variety of emotions I feel for my country, especially as it celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence.

We Nigerians are confident people - proud of our culture and identity, industrious, hard-working, ingenious and great survivors.

Let's face it, we need to be resilient - Nigeria can be extremely frustrating, annoying and inefficient.

But an optimistic outlook on life makes it a place where anything and everything is possible.

No wonder a survey once found that Nigerians are the happiest people in the world - we have a great capacity for laughing at ourselves.

Whether things are going well or whether it seems the world is about to come to an end, "Naija!" -also written 9ja - expresses it all.

It is about the food, the flamboyant dressing, the mannerisms, the boisterous - some say loud - interaction among complete strangers who on meeting immediately feel bonded by their "Naija-ness".

Like your family, you love them and you hate them at the same time.

You love them so much you would die for them, and yet you get so exasperated at the way they drive you up the wall.

And for the young, the word has entered their slang - spreading rapidly through social networking sites and through music.

My Nigerian colleague Peter Okwoche says this is because Naija denotes a new beginning or dawn for Nigeria.

"The word was coined by the country's youth as a way of distancing themselves from the old guard who they blame for Nigeria's woes," he says.

"Nigeria has a bad image abroad but the youth want the world to know that change is happening from inside the country."

And Naija is a word we Nigerians guard jealously.

We are most particular about how its pronunciation.

It must be punchy - both syllables should be emphasised but with a hook for the "Nai" and jab for the "ja".

Then you know you are in with the crowd. You are accepted. You are trusted.

BBC

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