Nigeria: 40,000 Nigerian girls, women trafficked to Mali

Between 20,000 and 40,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Mali, with many of them populating brothels in the West African nation, according to the Executive Secretary of Nigeria's Agency for the Prohibition and Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Simon Chuzi Egede, reports Afrique en ligne.

The number does not include the thousands that have also been trafficked to other African nations, including Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Libya and Morocco, Egede told a press conference in Abuja Wednesday.

The press conference was called to present the outcome of a fact-finding mission to Mali by a team of NAPTIP operatives, following revelations by a Bamako-based Nigerian clergyman on the presence of many brothels in Mali managed by madams from Nigeria.

"The fact finding efforts have been able to confirm the existence of many brothels in Bamako, Mopti, and Kayes in Mali, populated by young Nigerian victims of human trafficking," Egede said, adding that the development has put to task the ECOWAS policy on free movement of persons in the sub-region.