Côte d'Ivoire Trafficked Children Flown Back Home

Côte d'Ivoire is often at the receiving end of child trafficking and first lady Dominique Photo: AFP

Six children from Côte d'Ivoire who were victims of human trafficking have been rescued and returned home, the news website Abidjan.netreports.

Trafficking and exploitation of children: six Ivorian children intercepted in Agadez returned to Côte d`Ivoire. The Ministry of Promotion of Women, Family and Child Protection hosted six Ivorian children brought from Agadez in Niger on Tuesday (September 27) in the early evening at the international airport Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan. © Abidjan.net par DR 

BBC Africa Live report continues:

Ivorian officials were alerted on Tuesday to the situation of the children after they were spotted in Agadez, Niger, according to the news site. 

Authorities in Niger raised the alarm when they failed to properly establish family links between the children and their apparent minders. 

They have been taken home with help from the International Organization for Migration. 

Until further investigations the children will not be returned to their families. 

An official from the Côte d'Ivoire Ministry for Family Affairs, Magel Kouakou, was quoted by Abidjan.net as saying: 

We have to make sure children are no longer thrown onto the highways towards uncertain destinations."

Ouattara has made fighting it a personal cause

As a relatively rich farming country, known for its coffee and cocoa plantations, Côte d'Ivoire is usually a destination rather than a provider for child trafficking.

That is why Côte d'Ivoire officials are said to be investigating this unusual case out of fear that the children might have fallen victims to a new kind of underground network of traffickers.