In Nigeria, more than 20 pregnant women and two babies have been rescued from a so-called baby factory – an illegal facility used to conceive and sell children. The West African country’s military said on Monday that the facility was searched on Sunday after reports of children being sold “to criminals for ritual purposes and for child smuggling”.
21 of the 22 rescued women were pregnant. The owner of the facility in Ohafia in the state of Abia in the south-east of the country has so far fled, it was said.
So-called baby factories are repeatedly busted in Nigeria. They are often disguised as charitable shelters for poor young women. Those seeking help are then held against their will and raped. Victims are also often unintentionally pregnant young people who run away from home and are promised shelter.
The infants are then later sold to gangs. Some children are believed to be smuggled abroad, others end up with buyers who kill them in sacrificial rituals.
