Pan-African child Forum closes in Cairo

The four-day pan-African Forum on the future of children concluded in the Egyptian capital on Thursday with a general session entitled "the role of information technology in developing the African Child".

The session was presided over by Hisham El Sharif, President of the Regional center for Information Technology (IT) and programming.

The use of computer and the Internet is no longer a luxury, but it has now become one of the children's rights, the session said, calling on all officials concerned to create an appropriate atmosphere for giving children access to it.

"The forum has achieved positive results and has been a success for African countries struggling to solve their problems" Nigerian Minister of State for Development Haj Bello said.

The success of the forum is attributed to the importance of the issues it discussed, particularly those related to the protection and freedom of children, he told MENA.

He said, however, that the debt problem is hampering efforts to improve the conditions of children in Africa, urging all African nations to be united in their call for writing off or rescheduling their debts.

Bello underlined the need to combat child trafficking and solve the problems of aids and poverty plaguing the continent.

Meanwhile, Ivory Coast minister of Family and promotion Adjouna Henrietta Lagou admitted that Africa was facing the problem of child trafficking, but refused allegation of "slavery", a word she said was aimed to tarnish the image of the continent.