Ghanaian children wrongly taken in raids backed by US charity IJM - BBC News

Ghanaian children wrongly labelled as trafficked are being taken from their homes, BBC Africa Eye finds.

3 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage caption, Fatima, 11, was taken from her family's home in the middle of the nightBy Chiara Francavilla, Kwakye Afreh-Nuamah & Kyenkyenhene Boateng BBC Africa EyeGhanaian children have been taken from their homes in an operation backed by one of the world's leading anti-slavery organisations, according to a BBC Africa Eye investigation.

The multimillion-dollar charity, International Justice Mission, aims to rescue trafficked children and reunite them with their families. But serious concerns have been raised about their West African operations.

A little after midnight on 6 September, 2022, Musah Mustafa emerged from his thatched-roof hut to relieve himself and saw four cars speeding towards his tiny village.

Mogyigna was barely a village. With just a handful of family homes and two dozen people in total, it was more like a dot in the middle of an expanse of farmland in northern Ghana. Cars were a rare sight during the day, let alone at night. Musah hid behind a tree and watched. When he saw armed men from the cars approach the two homes, he shouted in an attempt to wake the other residents.

But before anyone could act, the men entered the huts and forcibly removed four children, carrying an 11-year-old girl called Fatima by her arms and legs from the room where she had been sleeping with her grandparents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66122058?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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