Nigeria's Nightmarish "Baby Farm"

Thirty-two women and girls were rescued from a so-called baby factory, where they were held and forced to sell their newborns, according to local authorities.

According to the BBC, Nigeria’s national anti-human trafficking agency “says desperate teenagers with unplanned pregnancies are sometimes lured to clinics and then forced to turn over their babies” for a small amount. Those babies are then sold to the highest bidder; some sources say they are then “used as factory workers, mine workers or sex slaves.” The BBC claims the babies “were then allegedly sold for ritual witchcraft purposes or adoption.” Male babies were worth more.

There was a similar raid in 2008, in which a doctor lured pregnant teens by saying he would perform abortions. A state agency said he would instead force the girls to give birth, pay them $170, then sell the babies for several thousands of dollars. Girls freed in that raid also said they were raped in order to be impregnated again.

Nigeria ‘Baby Farm’ Girls Rescued By Abia State Police [BBC]
Police In Nigeria Free 32 Pregnant Teens From Baby Factory [NYDN]