Police in Katakwi have rescued four Karamojong girls from suspected child traffickers.
The Katakwi acting District Police Commander, Naboth Okinei, says the four teenage girls were rescued along the Katakwi-Moroto border during an operation to net child traffickers in north eastern Uganda.
Okinei says the girls from Matany and Kangole sub-counties in Moroto district were being taken into the Teso region districts where an underground child sex market is reportedly thriving.
Police also arrested two drivers who were transporting the girls.
The Moroto LC5 chairperson, Ken Locap, says his office has received numerous reports about the sex market that operates in different areas in the Teso and Karamoja regions. He blames the rise in the child prostitution business on poverty in the Karamoja region, which he says has forced some parents to trade in their children for commercial gain.
Locap says many of the parents unwittingly sell their children to businessmen, who promise work, education, and shelter for the children, but instead use them as sex slaves. He discloses that his office has launched an aggressive crackdown to stop the child trafficking in Moroto.
