A couple whose names The Post simply got as Mr. and Mrs. Afanyi of Ets. AFCAM in Yaounde, have been charged with child trafficking and exploitation.

The international police organisation, INTERPOL, asked the couple to pay FCFA 500,000 for exploiting one Helen Shey Yuonti, a minor, whose services they have been exploiting since July 2004.

The issue was reported to INTERPOL by Serve the Orphans Foundation, SOF, which has been working to discourage child trafficking and exploitation in Cameroon since 2003.

According to the complaint submitted to INTERPOL by the Executive Director of SOF, Dr. Njingti Nfor, Helen Yuonti, who is now 17 years old, hails from Konchep village in Donga Mantung Division.

The complaint states that Yuonti was brought by an intermediary, one Julius working in Edea, Littoral Province, and who happens to be a paternal uncle to the minor.It notes that Yuonti was handed to the Afanyis on a verbal promise that she would learn sewing as a trade after working with the family for sometime.

"For her length of stay with the Afanyi, Helen has never received any remuneration for her work," the SOF complaint states.Meanwhile, in her testimony, Yuonti told INTERPOL how she was taken from her native village passing through Bamenda and then to Yaounde where she was handed to the Afanyis.

She said her duty, as explained by her paternal uncle who negotiated the deal, had to do with baby sitting a new born and that when the said baby attains school going age, the Afanyis would pay for her training as a seamstress.

She outlined other household chores assigned to her to include: doing laundry, cooking and washing utensils, feeding the children as well as doing other assignments as instructed.

Yuonti says the kid she was looking after will start school in the next academic year. She said her troubles started on July 2 when she inquired from Mrs. Afanyi when she [Yuonti] would start the tailoring training promised her three years ago.

According to Yuonti's testimony, "this provoked her (Mrs. Afanyi's) anger to the point that she scolded me and told me the contract was that I should live with her for 10 years before ever dreaming of learning any trade."

The SOF complaint corroborates that on July 3, 2007, the Afanyis took Yuonti to the Amour Mezam bus agency where a ticket of FCFA 5000 was procured for her to travel back to Bamenda.

An additional FCFA 6000 was handed to her to serve as food money and transport fare from Bamenda to Konchep. The complaint states that Yuonti hesitated to go because of the insufficient funds and idled around the park until one Amadou, who reported the matter to SOF, rescued her.

Stating that Yuonti's situation is a classical case of child trafficking and exploitation, Dr. Ngingti urged the Director of INTERPOL to prosecute Mr. and Mrs. Afanyi in a court of law for damages to be paid to Yuonti.

Dr. Njingti told The Post that the couple would still be legally pursued to respond to charges as stipulated by the law while the FCFA 500,000 would be used to pay for Yuonti's tailoring training.

He said a new sewing machine has already been acquired for Yuonti.