The boat thought to be carrying scores of child slaves and to have been roaming the west African coast for more than two weeks arrived early this morning in Benin's port of Cotonou.
Port sources in Benin said that according to the manifest received from the crew of a ship there were only seven children on board.
The MV Etireno, which arrived in Cotonou after a journey of more than two weeks, has been at the centre of an international search since Benin authorities last week said they thought it was carrying 180 child slaves.
"According to the manifest there are only seven children on board. We will have to wait until we can search the ship to know what the true story is," one port official said.
Witnesses said the Nigerian-registered MV Etireno arrived at about 1.15 a.m. (0015 GMT). Port workers tried to secure the ship before anyone could board or leave it.
"I am relieved that the boat is coming after four days," Benin's Social Protection Minister, Mr Ramatou Baba Moussa, said at the port before it arrived.
The creaky cargo vessel sailed from Cotonou on March 30th bound for Libreville in Gabon, but it was turned back there and was turned back from Cameroon's port of Douala last Thursday.
UNICEF, the UN children's fund, set up a receiving centre in Cotonou, in collaboration with the Benin government and other relief groups, to receive the children after their 2,000 km ordeal.
Also standing by were Benin's police unit for the protection of minors, ready to arrest the alleged mastermind of the child trafficking. International arrest warrants have been issued for a businessman from Benin, Stanislas Abadtan, and at least two other people. Police also want to question the crew.
Despite international efforts to curb the trade, child slavery persists in West and Central Africa, from where slave traders shipped millions of people to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
The region near modern-day Benin and Togo was once such a centre of the trade it was known as the Slave Coast.
Some aid workers said that in the past, ship's captains had been known to throw children overboard when they died or grew sick. That has raised fears that the captain may have already tried to get rid of the children.
"I don't think the captain will do that. I just can't believe that. Not a large number of children," Ms Esther Guluma of UNICEF said.
First reports put at 250 the number of children on board the ship, described as a trawler that usually carries cargo within the region. But officials in Benin said they believed there were 180 children.
Many child slaves from countries such as Benin, Togo and Mali end up working on plantations producing cocoa and other cash crops in Gabon and Ivory Coast. Anti-child labour campaigners say the youngsters are often forced to work for up to 12 hours a day.