COTE D'IVOIRE: Child Sacrifice on Rise in election run-up
Pastor Dale Morgan
COTE D'IVOIRE: Child Sacrifice on Rise in election run-up*
25 Jun 2008 17:18:04 GMT
Source: IRIN
ABIDJAN, 25 June 2008 (IRIN) - Child abduction, which is already a
serious problem in Cote d'Ivoire, may worsen in the run up to
presidential elections later this year as political hopefuls using
traditional myths of human sacrifice to improve their electoral chances
will fuel an already significant market for stolen children, according
to the Ivorian police.
"[Child abduction] is something that needs urgent attention especially
in the run-up to the election because a lot of things are going to
happen like human sacrifices and other rituals where the organs of
children will be particularly in demand," said Sergeant Antoine Goua Bi,
a spokesperson for the child protection unit of the Ivorian police, who
says child sacrifice always increases around election times.
"The number of children disappearing in Cote d'Ivoire has already
reached extremely worrying proportions," said Jean-Michel Boka,
coordinator of the Ivorian non-governmental child protection
organisation Roxal. "Every day we register three new cases – that adds
up to between 60 and 90 cases per month."
Organ traffickers, who slice out hearts, kidneys, lungs and other body
parts for sale to medical facilities and soothsayers are the main
culprits, Bi said. The children are also taken to work in the sex trade,
for use by illegal adoption rings, and for work on plantations, he said.
Parents' chances of getting their children back once they have
disappeared is slim. Boka at the NGO Roxal estimated a recovery rate of
just one in 20.
Kouassi Bâ, coordinator of the international NGO Save the Children in
Korhogo, northern Cote d'Ivoire, said they are working alongside the UN
Children's Agency (UNICEF) and International Labour Organization, to
raise awareness against child trafficking, but that there is no specific
project against child abductions.
However on 30 May the representatives of nine West African countries
governments met in Grand-Bassam in southern Cote d'Ivoire to sign a
joint accord to harmonise their laws against child trafficking.
The Ivorian ministry of family, women and children said in a statement
that it is taking the situation "very seriously" and that further
measures against child abductions will be announced shortly.