30 January 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican police seized on Monday a truck transporting 39 children, aged between 6 and 16, supposedly the victims of child trafficking, reports Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
The head of public relations in the Sofala Provincial Police Command, Feliciano Dique, told the paper that the children were transported in several vehicles, under what he described as "inhuman conditions" from the northern province of Nampula to Caia, on the south bank of the Zambezi.
Once in Caia, said Dique, the suspected traffickers hired a truck, but one of the children failed to get on board and denounced the situation to the authorities. The police then intercepted the truck on the main north-south highway, between Caia and Inchope.
Dique said that under questioning one of the transporters said they were taking the children to school, some to the western province of Tete, and some to Maputo.
After the police action, the children were taken to Chimoio, capital of the central province of Manica, while the truck is being kept under police custody in Beira. The Manica authorities are giving all the necessary support to the children in terms of food and health care, because they were showing signs of hunger and ill health.
Dique said there were strong suspicions that this was a case of child trafficking, but it was too early to draw definite conclusions.
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