At least 43 minors were aboard a west African ship that docked overnight at Benin's main port, Cotonou, after more than two weeks on the high seas amid suspicions that it was carrying up to 250 children destined for slavery.
However, humanitarian officials indicated yesterday that at least some of the children among the 147 exhausted passengers who disembarked from the Nigerian-registered Etireno at 1.20 a.m. were accompanied by relatives.
Officials noted that the ship may have been confused with another vessel spotted off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, hundreds of kilometres away, on Sunday.
Awaiting the ship early yesterday were police officers and representatives of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the relief organisation Terre des Hommes and the Benin Red Cross, along with two government ministers.
The Etireno had set sail on March 30th from Cotonou headed for Gabon, where it was refused permission to dock. It was also turned away from Douala, in Cameroon, last Thursday.
UNICEF's co-ordinator in Benin, Mr Nicolas Pron, said: "We have exchanged some words with the children but it has not been exhaustive because they were visibly tired."
International arrest warrants have been issued against the Nigerian captain, Lawrence Onome, and the crew of the Etireno.
UNICEF said on Saturday that a boat with up to 250 children on board had been turned back from Gabon three days earlier. A senior official said a second ship could be in the vicinity.
Rumours, meanwhile, floated around Cotonou yesterday. The Echoes of the Day journal, under the headline "The children have not returned", noted that Benin's social protection minister
had said that the ship had been sighted off Equatorial Guinea, further south, on Sunday.
The same vessel could not have docked in Cotonou yesterday, since the "journey [from Equatorial Guinea] takes a minimum of three days", the paper said.