Well, here's a story on child trafficking in Africa you don't hear every day ...

It is being reported that sixty-two children rescued from suspected traffickers have gone on a hunger strike to protest what they're saying is inhuman treatment by the Nigerian state police command who have been caring for them ... that, and "poverty in the land that forced their parents to engage them for sundry jobs", which is apparently the preferred term for slavery.

The kids were found in a container on a truck doing the Benin-Lagos run, and were to be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). This present strange turn of events has some worrying about some form of "cult-related agreement of oath taking among the kids as they responded to every question put to them in the same manner."

Strange, and frightening.

If things are looking bad for children in Nigeria, those in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be even worse. Hunger strikes in one story, malnutrition in another ... it's a tough continent to pigeonhole.

Because of security issues stemming from militia activities, malnutrition rates have jumped and child mortality has risen dramatically in the northern parts of the DRC. The fighting in some areas is so bad that people don't dare to venture into their fields, or to the local health centers, and trucks full of food aid are stuck on the roads.

You have to wonder if anyone is paying much attention.

Malnutrition from war is one issue, disease is another, and a one-two punch on either front is deadly. When that punch is HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, there's not much chance for the person taking the hit.

In Mozambique, the international NGO Malaria Consortium has revealed the results of a five-year study that suggests that a severe malaria infection suppresses the immune system of an HIV+ person even further, and that as the immune system declines they respond less quickly to treatment for the malaria.

Put pregnancy together with HIV and malaria and the potential scenario worsens, with more severe malaria symptoms, a greater chance of developing life-threatening anemia, a higher likelihood of a low birth-weight baby and an increase in the risk of mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus.

Malaria in HIV+ children is the main cause of death for children under five, as "anaemia, common in children suffering repeated episodes of malaria as well as other illnesses, is associated with increased mortality in HIV-infected children."

There are effective preventatives, but cost is an issue, with many not even to afford as much as a mosquito net to sleep under.

As always and everywhere, girls are getting a rough ride in Zimbabwe, as the dowry becomes a way for families to negate some of the effects of the declining economy.

Daughters are now a high-priced commodity, and parents are demanding 'absurd' amounts of money from potential in-laws as a way to make ends meet.

The story of one fifteen-year-old betrothed to a "polygamous businessman thirty years older" is not likely to be a rare one, and the $15 million Zim and settlement of arrears on the mortgage on the family home paid for her may seem like a good deal to many in the country. $15 million Zim, by the way is equal to $115 US.

One the same hand, love that can't meet the bottom line doesn't see the light of day, so the tragedy gets well spread around. One young man desirous of his lady love was turned down flat by her parents when he couldn't come up with a big payment ... in forex.

The parents also argued that because they had educated their daughter up to college level, and she would have looked after them, they needed to recoup the costs by asking for a high bride price.

The parents' take? That their daughter would wait for a man who could make them live in comfort, and they would not accept a marriage "full of love but no money for our daughter and us".