KINSHASA, Jan. 13 -- A child trafficking ring has been operating for sometime now in Kikwit town in southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the town's Catholic Bishop Marie-Edouard Mununu-Kasiala said on Sunday.

Mununu deplored the practice and urged the population to remain vigilant to dismantle the child trafficking network.

The bishop also revealed that in 2011, 10 children of five to 10 years old were abducted and taken to Europe via Kinshasa. In December last year, an elected member of parliament from the region returned 10 children to their parents after they had been abducted and kept in Kinshasa.

On Jan. 9, 2014, Father Henri De Kethule who is based in Kinshasa, condemned child trafficking operations that had been organized since September last year, from Kikwit town.

The child traffickers, who have been mostly using Kikwit, lie to residents that they have an orphanage in Kinshasa from where they would like to help those children.

They then take the children from their families in Kikwit to an unknown destinations.

Mununu appealed to the concerned authorities to make efforts to end the practice, protect the children and punish those responsible for the practice.