The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says at least 25,000 trafficked Nigerian women and girls are trapped in Mali.

The commander of the Benin zone of NAPTIP, Nduka Nwanwenne, gave the figure on Tuesday at a workshop organised for media professionals in Lagos.

“NAPTIP investigation on this category of victims revealed that they were attracted to Malian men because they spend more money on women compared to Nigerian men.

“The second major reason is that Malian men are proud of sleeping with women from Nigeria, the giant of Africa,” he said.

The zonal commander said the agency convicted 604 human traffickers and arrested over 9,102 suspected human traffickers from 2004 to May 2023.

He added that NAPTIP rescued about 20,660 Nigerian victims of human trafficking within the period.

He said the rescued victims passed through the agency’s shelter for rehabilitation.

According to him, 12,291 cases were reported during the period.

The director-general of NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi, said the workshop’s essence was to draw media professionals’ attention to the ugly trend of human trafficking to create more awareness of the dangers.

She added that the workshop also creates awareness of “the callousness of travellers, the dilemma of protection officers, and the need for the decisiveness of the judiciary in handling the cases arising from the abuse.”

NAPTIP was created on July 14, 2003, by the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act.

(NAN)