St. Bakhita Day 2026: African Theologians Rallying Thousands in Fight against Human Trafficking

She added, “During the campaign, a need emerged for us to be more organized. Following the campaign, we formed regions. The northern region, the southern African region, the western African region, the eastern African region, and the central region. Each of the regions has a head. Each of the countries also has a coordinator.”

“We have also formed anti-human trafficking clubs in schools in each of these regions, and also operate in parishes,” Sr. Katunge said, adding that by December last year, PACTPAN had established over 1,000 clubs in schools across the continent.

The Kenyan Catholic Sister who headed the national steering committee for Kenyan participants in the dialogue between Pope Francis and the African youths explained that the inspiration to fight human trafficking in Africa came in 2023, following the dialogue with the Holy Father.

“During the conversation we organized between our young people with the Holy Father, I realized that there is a group of African youths who have been forgotten, those who have been trafficked. I decided to speak about them,” she said.

PACTPAN however pegs its fight against human trafficking on St. Bakhita Day.  

Sr. Katunge explains, “The Patron Saint of trafficked persons, St. Bakhita herself was kidnapped in Sudan’s Darfur region at the age of 9 by Arab traders and sold as a slave. She is the role model of trafficked boys and girls who need someone to stand for them.”

The trafficking of human persons is a worsening crisis in Africa, she says.

Underlining the need for the Church in Africa to tackle human trafficking “from all angles,” Sr. Katunge continues, “As time passes, modern day slavery is becoming more aggravated. Nothing is changing because every day, there are new ways through which this crime is getting to expand.”

She says that among all fuelers of human trafficking, social media poses a bigger challenge.

PACTPAN’s army, the SSJ Mombasa member says, has waged war on the very platform where persons are recruited for trafficking.

“Poverty, early marriages, climate change, forced migration, displacements, among others have fuelled modern day slavery. But social media takes the lead. One is just a click away from being trafficked,” she told ACI Africa during the January 27 interview.

Sr. Katunge added that it is on social media and digital platforms that vulnerable job seekers are scammed into slavery. “I did an experiment myself, and in just one hour, I had gotten more than seven job offers – in Saudi Arabia, in Dubai, and in all those places where people find themselves in slavery.”

“We need to use the same social media that is used to traffic persons to educate and protect potential victims,” she said.

Sr. Katunge is not optimistic that African governments are willing to stop the human trafficking menace. “We have had government leaders who participated in the trafficking of young people to Arab countries in the guise that they were being offered jobs. There, they end up in deplorable conditions,” she lamented.

The theme of PACTPAN’s anti-human trafficking campaign is ‘Digital Evangelization for Human Dignity: Ending Human Trafficking in Africa.’

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To raise awareness on human trafficking on the continent, PACTPAN’s “army” across Africa has been populating the internet with creative content on hashtags such as #StBakhitaAfrica2026, #EndTraffickingAfrica, #UbuntuAgainstTrafficking.

In Algeria in northern Africa, youths have been creating short posts on safe migration routes and risks in the region that is one of the pathways for those travelling outside Africa in search of opportunities abroad.

In Egypt, school clubs have been hosting virtual discussions on faith and human dignity. Other countries in the region also participating in various ways are Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and the entire western Sahara.

The height of the campaign will be a vigil Mass on February 6 and the celebration on February 7 because St. Bakhita Day this year falls on a Sunday.

The vigil Mass is to be animated by a Priest in Morocco, the northern African country that Sr. Katunge describes as one of the doorways used to ferry trafficked persons to Europe.

Celebrations on February 7 that are to be streamed on PACTPAN’s digital platforms are to include testimonies of survivors and candle lighting, different kinds of peaceful demonstrations on the streets, and various kinds of artistic presentations.

This year’s keynote address is to be delivered by Prof. PLO Lumumba, a former Director and Chief Executive of the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) now Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), and an Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya.

Prof PLO Lumumba “fears no one,” Sr. Katunge told ACI Africa, adding, “PLO says things the way they are. He is a pan Africanist who is trying to ensure that everyone is listened to. He understands that many of our leaders in Africa are preying on their own sheep.”