LAGOS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nigerian police uncovered the second suspected baby factory in a week when they raided a house in southeastern Enugu state on Monday and found six pregnant teenagers whom they suspect were being forced to bear children for sale, media reported.
Two men and a woman believed to be operating a child trafficking ring were arrested during the raid and were cooperating with police, the news agency Agence France-Presse reported.
"We acted on intelligence information and raided the house in Enugu [city] where we met six girls, under 17 and all pregnant, and freed them," Enugu police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu told AFP.
Human trafficking and the sale of children is the third most common crime in Nigeria, according to the United Nations.
Police in nearby Imo State freed 17 pregnant girls and 11 small children from a home in the town of Umuaka five days earlier. In Monday’s raid, the girls told police they were being held by a 23-year-old man who is in custody. The owner of the building is on the run, AFP reported.
(Pickup by Stella Dawson)
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