Police in Senegal arrest 14 members of alleged transnational paedophile gang

Police in Senegal say they have broken up a paedophile gang operating between France and the West African country.

Investigators "carried out a major operation, dismantling a transnational organised criminal group,” the force said in a statement on Sunday.

Fourteen people appeared in court on Friday, charged with "organised paedophilia, pimping, rape of minors under 15, sodomy, and intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS,” the statement said.

All the defendants are Senegalese. Four of them are accused of having acted on the instructions of a Frenchman arrested in northern France last year.

Police say the group has been active since 2017. Members allegedly forced young boys to have unprotected sex with men, most of whom were HIV-positive. The alleged rapes were reportedly filmed.

Police carried out raids in Dakar and the city of Kaolack.