BETTER-HALVES OF TOP NIGERIEN POLITICIANS HELD FOR CHILD-TRAFFICKING
PHOTO: THE GUARDIAN Wives of minister and parliamentary speaker arrested after alleged baby-trafficking syndicate uncovered in West Africa Graves are dug for migrants who died in the Sahara Desert. 'I asked why there hadn’t been the same outcry,' said journalist Moussa Akfar, who uncovered the baby trafficking. Photograph: Almoustapha Alhacen/AP Authorities in Niger have arrested 17 people, including the wives of senior politicians, on suspicion of involvement in a baby-trafficking network that "bought and sold babies like bread". The accused allegedly paid for newborns from neighbouring Nigeria , where human traffickers run notorious "baby factories" in which women and girls are often forced to bear children for sale. The wife of Niger's agriculture minister was among those apprehended, as was a bank director and a policeman. The lawyer for another detainee, one of the wives of Hama Amadou, the speaker of parliament and a key oppositi...