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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for a continental initiative to
end the trafficking of women and children in Africa.
"African women and children have been hurt by this problem, and Africa has
an important part to play in fighting it," Annan said in a message to the
First pan-African Confrence on Human Trafficking, held on 19-23 February in
Abuja, Nigeria.
He said disparities in wealth had widened not only between nations, but also between sexes, resulting in the "feminisation of poverty".
"Only when [the victims of trafficking] have control over their own lives will this evil trade be brought to an end," he added in the statement delivered by Mbaya Kankwenda, the United Nations resident coordinator in Nigeria.
The conference was organized by the Women Trafficking and Child Labour
Eradication Foundation. The Nigerian NGO says tens of thousands of African
women and children have been smuggled out of their countries to other parts
of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas to work as virtual slaves or
prostitutes.
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