Interpol: 40 human traffickers arrested, 236 children saved
Police in five African countries arrested 40 suspected human traffickers and rescued hundreds of victims—including 236 minors—in an exceptionally large-scale Interpol-led operation.
Unusually, most of the suspects are women.
The traffickers lured vulnerable girls and young women into prostitution networks. Other victims were impoverished children whose parents handed them over to people promising them a better life. Instead, they were forced to beg in the streets and deprived of food or clean water or otherwise abused if they didn't bring in enough money, Interpol said.
The police operation Nov. 6-10 was carried out simultaneously in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
The victims came from several countries around Africa. The traffickers were from the five countries targeted in the police operation plus Nigeria.
