Trafficking offenders, including members of expatriate communities from Nigeria, Sudan, and Chad, as well as transient merchants and herders, subjected children to involuntary domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, or forced labor in agriculture, diamond mines, and street vending.
[2] Human rights observers reported that opposition militia groups in the north of the country continued to unlawfully conscript children as young as 12 years old in armed service.
Two of the main rebel groups, however, the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and the Army for the Restitution of Democracy (APRD), ceased all recruitment of children during the reporting period as a result of disarmament, demobilization, and reinsertion activities.
[2] In 2010 the Government of the Central African Republic did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so, despite limited resources, cross-border incursions from three neighboring countries, and chronic political instability.
[5] While the government failed to investigate, prosecute, or convict trafficking offenses during the reporting period, it made efforts to strengthen its anti-trafficking legal statutes.
For example, during the reporting period, the Sous Prefets of Paoua and Bocaranga facilitated communication between two international NGOs and the APRD, which enabled the effective demobilization of 623 child soldiers from the rebel group.
In September 2009, the Minister of Interior traveled to Paoua, in partnership with police, and convinced local citizens to peaceably allow the continuation of one NGO’s program to demobilize and rehabilitate child soldiers, including those unlawfully conscripted, from the APRD.
In January 2010, the Minister of Interior spoke on national radio about the overall poor law and order situation in the country, referencing in particular problems of child trafficking.