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High number of abandoned children attributed to AIDS

    JOHANNESBURG

    Burkina Faso's government has blamed the rising number of abandoned children in the country on HIV/AIDS, poverty and child trafficking.

    According to official statistics, orphans and abandoned children accounted for close to 18 percent of the country's 11.8 million population in 2003.

    The government said it had outlined a new strategy for working with NGOs and local communities to properly address the problem.

    "We already have people working towards these goals [of child protection], but they lack clear focus and sometimes don't know how to get the best results from their efforts," the director general of social welfare, Agnes Kabore, told the UN news service, PlusNews.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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