The Congolese National Police (PNC) apprehended eight kidnappers, including two women, on Monday June 5 in Kamako, located 150 km from Tshikapa, the capital of Kasai province. According to local sources, these individuals are members of a vast criminal network that kidnaps children to sell them in Angola. The children are taken to Angola, where they are trained in occult practices or sold to West Africans for acts of fetishism.
Kidnappers also operate in South Lunda province, where they sell each child for between $3,500 and $4,000, according to the same sources. The eight criminals were brought before the PNC in Kamako.
Unfortunately, such child abductions have become common in the Democratic Republic of Congo and have been reported in several provinces of the country. It is therefore important to strengthen the security of these regions to put an end to these atrocities and protect children against this kind of practice.