going rate for a human being is around $35

For those lucky enough to get caught in the redemption web, life is not much better. Anguer, for example, is no longer enslaved, but her future remains uncertain.

She has lost her immediate family, and because she now has a child out of wedlock, her chances of attracting a husband are very slim. She is one more living casualty in a slavery process many want to see become history.

3 million people have fled or been forced from their homes

master also tried to make her a Muslim - taking her to mosque and giving her the Arabic name of Fatima

Akuac was sold to an Arab who made her wash clothes, haul water, gather firewood and help with cooking

``Otherwise, they would have killed me. Because I was a slave, they had the right to do whatever they wanted to me,''

returnees arrive in the dusty heat, crammed atop trucks, some with terrible stories of the organized abduction, for years denied by the government

Sudan was notorious for slavery until it was conquered by Britain in the 19th century. But the practice was revived in the mid-1980s during the civil war when the Arab-dominated government armed militias known as murahaleen to fight the southern rebels, much as they more recently have armed militias against rebels in Darfur in the country's west.

About 3,000 were taken back home before the programme ran out of money in 2005. Donors pulled out, saying some were not genuine slaves, some had been returned against their will and had been left to fend for themselves in the desolate, under-developed south.

the end of the war seems to have taken the urgency out of the project

freedom is not necessarily easy - she now has to support the children on her own, with no assistance from donors or the government.

forgotten their real names and where they come from, although they can sometimes be identified by the marks cut into their faces as children - a part of Dinka traditions.

"I always ask God, why other children come back but not mine. What have I done to deserve this?"

last reported case of abduction was on 9 May 2002

forced into different kinds of abuse

sold or given to others as presents

having food and drink withheld.

brutally beating

driving nine-inch nails through his hands, knees and feet. He then poured acid on Joseph’s legs to inflict even greater pain, and finally left him for dea

Christians are second-class citizens

Joseph survived kidnapping, the loss of his parents, ten years of enslavement, and near death by crucifixion

aid us in the relief of their suffering

Deng, who once was forced to cite daily Muslim prayers as a slave, now proudly identifies by his new faith.

he now has hope, and his goal is to be like his rescuers and set other Sudanese captives free