President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria said that 150 Nigerian children had recently died off the coast of West Africa on their way to work in Gabon selling water and nylon. President Obasanjo called for more attention to be focussed on trafficking in women, child labour, child abuse and slavery.

The President's comments were made during a meeting with The Nigerian Council of Women Societies on 18 July 2001, according to Attah Esa, an official for the President's office. Unicef's head of information in Nigeria was reported to be shocked by the revelation and stated that they are investigating where the information came from.

A separate media report stated that the Nigerian Ambassador to Gabon had declared in May that he had repatriated an average of 15 Nigerian slave children from Gabon every month.

Trafficking of children throughout West Africa to work as domestics, market traders or in agriculture and fishing has been documented by many organisations (see for example Anti-Slavery's report on trafficking between Benin and Gabon).

The trafficking of Nigerian women and girls into the European Union who are then forced to work in the sex industry, has also been widely reported. According to the recently published US State Department report on trafficking in persons, the Italian authorities estimate that up to 10,000 Nigerian prostitutes work in Italy alone. The report also notes that Nigeria is a source, transit and destination country for trafficked persons.