How a chief died out of shock from a wrongful child trafficking operation by US-based organisation

In one of the latest works published by the BBC Africa Eye team, titled “The Night They Came for Our Children,” the investigators detailed how a chief died out of shock from what has been largely determined to have been a wrong diagnosis of child trafficking by a reputable US-based anti-trafficking organisation.

Targeting the work that the International Justice Mission (IJM) does specifically in Ghana, the lead journalist on the case, Kyenkyenhene Boateng, followed the trails in this expansive case until he found himself in what is a small village somewhere in the northern parts of Ghana.

At Mogyigna, the journalist sat down with the small community members and listened as one by one, they recalled the incident of a little after midnight on September 6, 2022, where some armed men swiftly moved in and whisked away four children from their families.

Shocked at the unprovoked happening that saw an 11-year-old girl, Fatima, also removed from her home – from where she was with her grandparents, eventually led to the death of her grandfather.

The investigations found that Fatima’s grandfather was too stupefied by what had happened, and with uncertain thoughts about what was going to happen to his young granddaughter, he fell into medical shock but never recovered from it.

Corroborating this and speaking about the impact of this act of injustice that had been brought on their community, a member, Shei Shei, told BBC Africa Eye that the armed men burst into the bedroom of Fatima’s grandfather, who was also one of their chiefs.

“But the most tragic part of this story is we had a chief in the community who died following this incident. The chief was in his room with his wife and grandchildren and they burst into his bedroom.

“When they took his grandchildren, the chief suffered a shock. After some time, he died. His grave is in that house,” he said.

After spending four months away from her family, and kept in a shelter, Fatima, just like her worried grandmother back at home at Mogyigna, wondered what had happened to either of them.

The community members told the investigators that the team from IJM did not fire a single shot, but they sure did leave in their tracks a lot of commotion.

“When they entered the community, they didn’t fire their guns, but caused a lot of commotion. They blasted into the house, and the other house down there, and used force to take the children away,” Musah Dokurugu, one of the men said.

One other community member, Musah Mustapha, also spoke about how the trend where children in the community would joyously run after cars that came by their area, had turned into a nightmarish experience for them.

“Before, when a car came, the kids would chase it to see what was happening. But now, when a car comes, no child goes near it,” he explained.

The US-based charity, International Justice Mission (IJM), has had around $100m (£78m) in funding annually over the past two years, making it one of the world's leading anti-trafficking organisations.

In the UK, IJM says it can count on the support of nearly 300 churches, and more than £220,000 ($280,000) was raised last year (2022) from churches and other donors by IJM UK to support activities in Ghana.

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