Benin child trafficking

Eitan is at the center of a custody battle between his Israeli grandfather and his aunt who lives in Italy. In May, the 6-year-old's parents and younger brother were killed in a cable car crash in Piedmont.

Pope Francis expresses his personal shame and that of the Church at the sexual abuse of children by French Catholic clergy, and offers the victims his prayers, after the scale of the problem was laid bare in a devastating report. An independent commission revealed earlier this week that French Catholic clergy sexually abused around 216,000 minors over seven decades since 1950, calling the scandal a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up by a "veil of silence".

Nazi memorabilia and weapons valued at around €3 million have been found by police in Rio de Janeiro. The hoard was found during an investigation into a suspected raping of a minor.

Valentina Alexandre is a history teacher and tour guide in the United States. The young woman was born in Haiti and traveled to Benin to learn more about her ancestry.

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.

Benin is one of the few countries on the African continent to legalise abortion for most circumstances. The law was passed on Wednesday night following a debate in Parliament, but still needs to be ratified by the constitutional court before it takes effect.

Statues, thrones, and ceremonial hatchets are among the 26 artefacts on display at the Quai Branly museum in Paris. The week-long exhibition offers visitors the chance to see the treasures looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey before they return to Benin after 130 years in France. We learn more about the political pressure and cultural policies that brought about this historic restitution.

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In 2019 alone, militia groups recruited nearly 8000 child soldiers, some as young as six. One of the countries where children are most at risk is the Central African Republic. Deutsche Welle has visited a project aiming to rehabilitate such children.

The different levels of government have agreed to return Benin bronzes to Nigeria. It is up in the air whether they can be exhibited as planned at the Humboldt Forum.

The Federal Criminal Police chief has warned that the huge increase in cases is stretching police resources. On the same day, a Catholic priest was fired over a probe into child sexual abuse images.

Dozens of artefacts are finally back home in Benin after they were looted by French colonisers more than a century ago. Also, African voices at COP26 call for a stronger stance from richer nations who are held responsible for most of the pollution driving the climate emergency. And African content creators put TikTok on the spot. The continent's online creators say the platform has overlooked them in the creation of a payment fund that only caters to US and EU influencers.