Child trafficking is resurfacing in the southern provinces of Burundi, with the interception last Friday of several minors en route to Tanzania, apparently destined for domestic work. Authorities are increasing their vigilance in the face of this growing threat.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

In Rutana, this interception involved exhausted and vulnerable boys.

It was in Gitaba village, in Rutana province (southeast), where the police arrested four young boys, along with a suspected trafficker. The children, from the districts of Bukirasazi and Buraza in the neighboring province of Gitega (central), said they had left their villages on foot, visibly exhausted after a long journey. Children’s rights activists who met with them confirmed their state of fatigue and vulnerability, reinforcing the seriousness of the situation.

Our sources emphasize that a new strategy appears to have been adopted by the traffickers : transporting the children on foot or by motorcycle to evade security checks. They take poorly monitored routes, passing through remote communities such as Bukemba (Rutana) and Kayogoro (Makamba-south), before reaching the Tanzanian border.

The children, along with their alleged chaperone, are currently held at the Rutana district police station. They are expected to be questioned soon as part of the ongoing investigation.

In Nyanza-Lac : unescorted underage girls

On the same day, in Nyanza-Lac district, Makamba province, four underage girls from Kagongo village in Rumonge province (southwest) were intercepted in Kabonga village while attempting to cross the Tanzanian border.

A worrying development : these girls were traveling alone, without an adult to accompany them.

The authorities, alarmed by this particular case, immediately took charge of the minors and took them to the Nyanza-lac district police station. After identifying their parents, the authorities are preparing to hand over the girls, while continuing investigations to determine the exact circumstances of their escape.

A worrying situation that calls for action

These two cases highlight the persistent scale of child trafficking in Burundi’s border areas. According to a report by the Integrated Protection Partnership (IPP), children and women are the primary victims of human trafficking in the African Great Lakes region.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the most common forms of human trafficking are forced labor and forced prostitution, affecting 66% of women and 54% of child victims, respectively.

These alarming statistics reinforce the need for concerted action to combat this scourge. Children’s rights advocates are calling for strengthened border controls and a heightened awareness campaign to inform vulnerable populations about the dangers of trafficking. Authorities, for their part, are stressing the need to collaborate with neighboring countries to combat this scourge regionally.

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40 Burundian minors deported by Tanzania on September 17, 2024