13 child prostitutes rescued in S. Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Police in South Africa say they have charged 59 Nigerian men with involvement in a prostitution ring and rescued 13 girls.

Superintendent Andre Neethling, head of the child protection unit in Johannesburg, told the BBC that some of the girls had been kidnapped and others sold to men who gave them crack cocaine to keep them in a state of dependence. Some of the girls told investigators that they had been working as prostitutes since the age of 11.

Neethling said that the operation in Johannesburg appears to be part of a nationwide child prostitution syndicate.