From the South African Independent Online:

Ministers from 26 African countries have adopted a plan to fight the trafficking of people on the continent, particularly children and women forced into labour and prostitution.

Members of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the 11 countries of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) signed the deal on Thursday evening after considering expert reports on the problem, which affects millions of people in Africa.

[...]

Thousands of children fall victim to trafficking every year across central and West Africa, most of them because of poverty, according to Ecowas. Nigeria is a major hub, with children smuggled in from neighbouring countries such as Benin to serve in quarries or as domestic workers, and women smuggled out to work as prostitutes in Europe and the Gulf.

Lee Swepson, a human rights spokesperson for the ILO, said child labour was decreasing worldwide but Africa was an exception to the trend, with some 50 million children there made to work - a quarter of the overall world figure.

The West African countries that accepted the deal are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. In central Africa, the states joining the agreement are Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda and the archipelago republic São Tomé and Principe.

The girls stop off at transit stops in places like Nigeria -- after being kidnapped from their places of origin, and are eventually shipped off as prostitutes to places like Italy.

"[The] ILO estimates put a figure of about 1.2 million young victims each year of which 32 percent are Africans." -- AllAfrica.com.

However, besides kidnapping, another story belies much of the child slavery. Parents living in desperation and selling their children in hopes that the family can live on the proceeds.

Introducing Augustine Dognon. Aged 11, his father sent him along with his two brothers away from their home in Benin to work in Nigeria, breaking rocks in quarries. The Independent Online reports:

It all started with the boy's father, Roger Dognon, negotiating a "good price" for his three sons from Za Hla village in central Benin. The money was enough to keep Dognon's family of about 20 children fed for a month. But his three sons had no idea what faced them in Nigeria. "They told us we were going to work with chickens and collect eggs, but when we arrived in Nigeria we had to work like adults, crushing stone at the quarries. It was terrible work, really tough. We got very little to eat and we were not allowed to go anywhere."

The boys' father has four wives. He says he could not cope and felt forced to sell his boys' labour to a trafficker. It is what is done around here. I was promised good money for the boys for one year and I got a down payment. We are very poor."

The case of Augustin and his brothers is typical of many in the region. It is estimated that each year between 200 000 and 800 000 children are trafficked across the porous borders throughout West and Central Africa.

By the way, how much do the parents get for their children?

He received 10 000 Central African Francs (CFA) as a down payment from the trafficker for the boys to go and work in Nigeria. He was told he would get CFA90 000 for his three sons for a year.

10,000 CFA = roughly $19.34. 90,000 CFA = $174.13.

For his three children. And it was only enough to feed his family for a month. He had to lease them for a year. By the way, the children are back home in Benin now. They were saved and their tuition paid for by UNICEF.

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Change may come in the form of new agreements reached at a summit of Central and West African leaders on the topic of human trafficking. Chaired by the wife of the Vice President of Nigeria, Mrs Amina Atiku, the meeting culminated in the signing of an agreement to arrest the trend of rising human trafficking in Africa.

And may it be successful.

For more information on efforts to abolish slavery, click the iAbolish.com link at the right.