Prostitution in Africa

Egypt

Prostitution in Egypt is illegal. Police department officially combats prostitution but, like almost all other countries, prostitution exists in Egypt. The prostitutes in Egypt are Egyptian, Russian, and of many other nationalities.

Libya

Prostitution in Libya is illegal. Many of the sex workers are from neighboring countries desperate to flee the povery of their countries.

Morocco

Prostitution has been illegal in Morocco since the 1970s.

Many children are vulnerable as adoption laws in Morocco are very rigid and difficult. Morocco's increasing reputation for attracting foreign pedophiles made it sign various international treaties to deal with the problem. Male prostitution exists but is stigmatised. Health services for Moroccan sex workers include OPALS.

Traditionally, women's roles in North African society have been rigidly defined, particularly so with increasing Islamification. Yet the economic and social realities often provide few alternatives to many Moroccan women, and the area has increasingly been seen as permissive to prostitution.

Tunisia

Prostitution in Tunisia is illegal, but, as in many other countries, the laws that ban prostitution are ignored and there are many brothels, tolerated and regulated by the authorities.

Burkina Faso

Prostitution in Burkina Faso is not specifically prohibited by the law, but soliciting and pimping are illegal.

Cape Verde

Cape Verde legislation does not penalise prostitution, and a number of sex workers operate covertly and overtly on the Cape Verdian island of Sal. Sex tourism is a major occurrence in Cape Verde.

Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

In Côte d'Ivoire, prostitution itself (exchanging sex for money) is legal, but associated activities, such as soliciting, pandering or running brothels, are illegal. The civil war has left many women in need for wages, so some have resorted to prostitution, as there is high unemployment.

The Gambia

Prostitution in the Gambia is illegal and a highly social taboo.

Ghana

Prostitution in Ghana is illegal, and there is a growing problem of sex tourism. Ghana was become a favoured destnation for padeophiles to seek child prostiutes due to low law enforcement. Prostitution is a criminal act in Ghana. A high percentage of sex workers are vulnerable to HIV.

Defining prostitution in the African context can be difficult, when compared to the situation in Europe, with there being a continuum from marriage to prostitution. If prostitution is defined as "women who sell sex on a regular basis to a number of different clients and without any emotional or long-term basis to the relationships", then such women can be identified in urban Ghanaian settings, but, in between lies a spectrum of sexual relationships that may, for instance, involve longer term relationships, children, and domestic settings.

Vietnamese prostitutes have been found in Ghana in the coastal cities of Tema and Takoradi. Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas discovered that the Vietnamese women had been trafficked into Ghana for the purposes of prostitution. The Vietnamese prostitutes had been recruited by a Vietnamese woman named Hanh in July 2013. The price paid by their clients in Ghana was US$100 per hour. The prostitutes worked from a brothel in the Jang Mi Guest House in Takoradi. The women's ages ranged from 25 to 35.

Prostitutes in Ghana are called Ashawo. Unemployment is a reason teenage workers engage in sex work.

Guinea-Bissau

Prostitution in Guinea-Bissau is a major serious problem with many of pimps also being drug dealers. Because of the poor economic situation many women are tempted by such offers of vice and become addicted to cocaine.

Liberia

Prostitution is illegal in Liberia Like its neighbor, Sierra Leone, child prostitution has seen an increase in the aftermath of a civil war.

Mali

Mali has problem with teenage prostitution and sex tourism.

Niger

Prostitution in Niger is illegal.

Nigeria

Nigeria has become a major exporter of women for prostitution. Deputy president of Senate Ike Ekweremadu has proposed a bill to legalise prostitution.

Senegal

Prostitution in Senegal is legal and regulated. Prostitutes must be at least 21 years of age, register with the police, carry a valid sanitary card, and test negative for sexually transmitted infections. NGOs working with prostitutes claim that the police abuse prostitutes. Senegal is becoming a popular destination for female sex tourism.

Sierra Leone

Since the end of the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone, there has been an increase in child prostitution, especially among children who are struggling to survive. This has happened in spite of the fact that prostitution is illegal in the country.

Togo

Prostitution in Togo is illegal and punishable for up to 5 to 10 years. In recent years Togo has become a magnet for western sex tourists who are interested in child prostitution.

Angola

Prostitution in Angola is illegal and prevalent since the end of the civil war in 2001. Human trafficking from China is major problem which the Angolan government working with Chinese Police.

Cameroon

Prostitution in Cameroon is illegal, but it attracts sex tourism from the West, especially for child prostitution. The Cameroonian government has attempted to stop this trade by agreeing to multilateral agreements such as charters against sex tourism, like signing up with the Universal Federation of Travels Agents Associations (UFTAA).

Central African Republic

Prostitution is illegal but is run by foreign pimps.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Prostitution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is illegal but the government do little to enforce the law. Many Congolese prostitutes are from abroad or homeless children who have been accused of witchcraft.

Burundi

Prostitution in Burundi is illegal.

Djibouti

Prostitution in Djibouti is illegal.

Eritrea

Prostitution in Eritrea is illegal, but, according to the 2009 Human Rights Reports it is a serious problem, and security forces occasionally follow women engaged in prostitution and arrest those who had spent the night with a foreigner.

Ethiopia

Prostitution in Ethiopia is legal, but procuring (operating brothels, benefiting from prostitution, etc.) is illegal according to Article 634 of the Ethiopian Penal Code, as revised May 2005. Many feel it has contributed to the increased incidence of AIDS. Ethiopia has become a magnet for sex tourism.

Kenya

Prostitution in Kenya is illegal.

Madagascar

Prostitution in Madagascar is illegal and people caught paying for sex can face a sentence of up to 10 years.

Malawi

Prostitution in Malawi is illegal but is widespread and laws prohibiting are rarely enforced.

Mozambique

Prostitution in Mozambique first became a major issue for the country in the mid-1990s when UN peacekeepers were accused of soliciting child prostitutes.

Rwanda

Prostitution is illegal in Rwanda. However, due to the immense poverty in the country, many women have been forced into prostitution to make money.

Seychelles

Prostitution in Seychelles is illegal but remains prevalent. Police generally do not apprehend prostitutes unless their actions involved other crimes.

Somalia

Prostitution in Somalia is illegal. Although forced marriages exist in areas under insurgent control, there is generally little voluntary prostitution and pre-marital sex in the country according to the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF).

South Sudan

South Sudan has a problem of imported prostitution from nearby African countries.

Tanzania

Prostitution in Tanzania is illegal under Tanzanian law, but it is still widespread.

Uganda

Prostitution in Uganda is illegal in Uganda, but prostitutes operate freely in Kampala city centre.

Zambia

Prostitution in Zambia is illegal, but Zambia has a huge problem relating to child prostitution. There is a mistaken belief that having intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS.

Zimbabwe

Prostitution in Zimbabwe is illegal but since the increase of famine in the country prostitution has thrived.

Botswana

Prostitution is illegal in Botswana, but is nevertheless common. Legalization is currently being discussed as a means of lowering HIV infection rates, which are among the highest in the world. Both the head of the National AIDS Council, Festus Mogae, and the main opposition leader are in favor of the initiative, while the Catholic Church is opposed.

Namibia

Prostitution in Namibia is illegal but a common practice.

South Africa

Prostitution in South Africa has been illegal since the 1957 Sexual Offences Act (SOA), and the purchase of sex was added as an offence in a 2007 amendment. However, it remains common.

Rhino horn is illegally trafficked as trophies by Vietnamese prostitutes and Thai prostitutes in South Africa. Thai prostitutes were involved in the scheme by Chumlong Lemtongthai. Poles, Czechs, Thai prostitutes, and Vietnamese all participated in the rhino horn smuggling scheme which are then exported into Vietnam, where per gram, gold and rhino horn are the same in value. Hunting permits were acquired by the prostitutes.

Swaziland

Prostitution in Swaziland is illegal, and police continue to enforce the law, although they sometimes turn a blind eye to prostitution in clubs.