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News Note

Update on Child Trafficking

Officials in the West African nation of Côte D'Ivoire announced on June 1 that during May 2001, they had stopped the attempted trafficking of 98 children into the country from neighboring Burkina Faso.

On Friday 1 June, Côte D'Ivoire officials returned the youngsters, aged 10 to 20, to authorities in Burkina Faso. According to the Côte D'Ivoire Minister of Interior, 19 girls and 79 boys were involved in the repatriation.

UNICEF assisted the Ivorian government and a local non-profit group, Afrique Secours et Assistance, in providing shelter, medical attention and food for the children during their stay in Côte D'Ivoire.

Every year, some 200,000 children are trafficked in West and Central Africa, to be used as domestic labor, in farming, fisheries, or in the sex trade.