They are disguised as hospitals, maternity clinics, orphanages or foster homes. But these supposedly humanitarian institutions are actually engaged in inhuman activities – breeding and trafficking babies for money. This news came out of Nigeria as law enforcers raided several such institutions last week, as reported in this article in the Mail & Guardian.

The babies come from 2 sources, namely:

• Teenagers with unwanted pregnancies who are locked up and abused in the clinics until they delivered.
• Women who rent out their wombs for money.

The next question is, where do the babies end up?

The lucky ones are sold at high prices to childless couples within Nigeria or even across the border to other African countries. The unlucky ones end up with organizations that will raise them for child labor and sexual purposes. Or even worse, some babies could end up as victims of human body parts farming and witchcraft rituals.

No, these are not just horror fairy tales, they really happen in real life. BBC reported this week about the gruesome murder of a 6-year old albino girl in Burundi. Some of her body parts have been removed, presumed to be used in ritual medicine. She was the 6^th albino to have been killed in the country this way since September this year.

It is sobering to read such happenings in other parts of the world. Suddenly, my worries about bisphenol A, childhood vaccines, and private vs public schools seem insignificant, even mundane compared to what these people and these babies are going through. “There, but for fortune, go you or I.”