24 Nigerian girls have been rescued from s*xual exploitation through the collaborative effort of the Nigerian Embassy in Dakar and a Senegalese NGO.
The young ladies were wrenched from the den of their masters in the Tamaccounda and Kedougou regions of Senegal.
The acting Ambassador of the Nigerian Embassy in Dakar, Salihu Abubakar, revealed the details to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.
According to him, the victims, mostly girls and women aged between 11 and 24, but predominantly underaged girls, were trafficked to Senegal through Cotonou, Benin Republic, via the Mali-Senegal border for s*xual exploitation.
“These girls and many more are being trafficked to Senegal through Cotonou, Benin Republic via Mali to the Senegalese border for prostitution,” Abubakar explained.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the majority of the girls and women were school dropouts from Edo and Delta states, with a few others from Imo, Abia, and two from Plateau. Abubakar confirmed that out of the 24 girls and women, 22 had been repatriated weeks earlier, while the remaining two returned safely to Nigeria on Saturday.
The health status of the victims and details regarding the duration of their exploitation have not been made public. However, the diplomat emphasised that the successful repatriation highlights the strong international cooperation between the embassy and the NGO, “Free the Slaves” (La Lumiere in French), in combating human trafficking.
“Our main goal and number one priority is to discourage the trafficking of our Nigerian girls to any part of the world for prostitution under any guise,” Abubakar said.