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How sex trade ensnares Nigerian women

Sex workers are seen standing at night on the streets in Benin City on May 21. Desperate women in Africa's most populous country — where rising poverty rates have ensnared 63% of population — end up forced into prostitution across west Africa, along migrant routes toward Europe, and all the way up to Italy, Germany and France.

Sex workers are seen standing at night on the streets in Benin City on May 21. Desperate women in Africa's most populous country — where rising poverty rates have ensnared 63% of population — end up forced into prostitution across west Africa, along migrant routes toward Europe, and all the way up to Italy, Germany and France. | AFP-JIJI

By Leslie FAUVEL
AFP-JIJI

Jul 15, 2026

Benin City, Nigeria – She thought she was leaving Nigeria to work at a mobile phone shop in Mali to save money for university.

Instead Blessing was forced into prostitution at 16 before escaping with four other women three months later.

“They said, ’There is no boutique or phone plaza, it’s ashawo,’” she said, using the local Pidgin term for sex work.

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