Project Niger (1)

Exploitation of Children - "The enslavement and trafficking of Africans are disturbing and persistent problems for a continent already battling political, economic and health concerns. But growing international awareness of the crisis, and new laws, may limit the exploitation of Africans."

The problem of child labour, slavery and exploitation of labour in general is getting worse particularly in the developing countries. As earlier stated, the main aim of this blog is to increase awareness and help in the fight to wipe out child mining and child labour in general. Today I want to focus on a particular country. This post attempts to point out and discuss child mining in Niger, one of the world's poorest countries.


Republic of Niger: the basic facts

• The Republic of Niger is a multi party republic that returned to democracy in 1999 following coups in 1996 and 1999.



• Located in West Africa, bordered by Burkina Faso and Mali (West), by Algeria and Libya (North), by Chad (East), and by Nigeria and Benin (South);



• Niger had a population of 11.3 million. Niamey is the country's capital and its largest city.



• The United Nations Development Program has listed Niger as the least developed country in the world.









• Being one of the world's poorest countries, sixty-three per cent of the population lives below the absolute poverty level with an average life expectancy of just forty-two years.



• President Mamadou Tanja was elected to his second fiver year term in December 2004. Slavery was officially banned five years ago, but Human Rights groups say about 43,000 people remain in bondage including women and children.

A thumbnail sketch

'Niger is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.

Children are trafficked within Niger for forced begging, domestic servitude, mine labor, sexual exploitation, and possibly for agricultural labor.

Nigerien children are also subjected to commercial sexual exploitation along the border with Nigeria and are trafficked to Nigeria and Mali for forced begging and manual labor.

Women and children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo are trafficked to and through Niger for domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, and forced labor in mines, on farms, and as mechanics and welders.

Nigerien women and children are trafficked from Niger to North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation.

Caste-based slavery practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships continue in isolated areas of the country.

At least 8,800 Nigeriens live in conditions of traditional slavery. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2007 [full country report]

Niger mining industry

A boy holding a flashlight climbs out of a mining hole, bearing a sack of excavated dirt on his back, in the eastern mining town of Durba in Ituri Province.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in Africa, provides a typical example of child exploitation. Uranium, gold, phosphates, tin, coal, limestone, salt and gypsum mining are prominent in Niger. In Madaoua, a major gypsum mining town in Niger, 43 percent of the mining workers are children. Of these 6.5 percent are 6 to 9 years of age and 16 percent are of 10 to 13 years of age. These children are exposed to innumerable safety hazards. During extractions they are at risk of injury from their tools and from exhaustion as they have to cover a huge area in search for gypsum. Other risks are snake and scorpion bites and foot injuries, as most of them are barefoot, from stones and wood splinters.

Holding a dog in her arms, a girl stands looking out of the window of a bus wreck in the former mining town of Llallagua in the department of North Potosi. With most mines in the smaller towns now closed, the region suffers from chronic underemployment.

Liptako is a major gold mining area in Niger. Gold ores are obtained in difficult and dangerous conditions, as the method of work is primitive without any source of mechanical or electrical or any other power. Children are fully involved in most of the activities in gold production. 17 percent of the workers are children. They are also involved in related activities like transport, drug selling and prostitution. In the extraction phase, children are used as carriers of ores and waste products to the surface.

A jerrycan on his shoulder and a pail on his arm, a boy carries water in the gold mining area of Mollehuaca, in the southern district of Arequipa.

The child laborers manually carry sacks that weigh 5-10 kg. In addition to the danger of falling rocks, the children can also fall down mine shafts. They are exposed to risks such as explosions, asphyxiation, dust, dermatoid, flooding and drowning in the mines. They also face very high or very low temperatures, dangerous air and space, bilharziosis due to polluted water where they wash gold ores and dangerous materials used in mining and processing. The nearest medical facilities are 60 km away. [full report]