It is frequently common in practice, partially driven by the widespread poverty in many sub-Saharan African countries,[1] and is one of the drivers for the prevalence of AIDS in Africa.

[9] Many Namibian women enter the country illegally, often via the border municipality of Curoca, and travel to towns such as Ondjiva, Lubango and Luanda to work as prostitutes.

[14] 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).

[16][17] A study published in 2017[17] found that about two thirds of the prostitutes in the capitol, Bangui, worked part-time to supplement their income or to pay school and college fees.

[20] Lack of understanding of the infection,[21] low usage of condoms and poor access to healthcare[22] contribute to a HIV prevalence rate of 20%.

[30] During his trial in Paris in 1995, Italian fashion designer Francesco Smalto admitted providing the then President of Gabon, Omar Bongo with Parisian prostitutes to secure a tailoring business worth $600000 per year.

Comorians may be particularly vulnerable to transnational trafficking due to a lack of adequate border controls, corruption within the administration, and the existence of international criminal networks involved in human smuggling.

[46] Due to its strategic position, troops from United States, China, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy.

[46][47][45] During an investigation in 2015, it was found almost half of the Engineering Department of the Tennessee Army National Guard had used prostitutes whilst stationed in Djibouti.

[50] According to the 2009 Human Rights Reports, security forces occasionally follow women engaged in prostitution and arrest those who had spent the night with a foreigner.

[86][87] Following the French law prohibiting "passive soliciting" in 2003,[88] street prostitution in Réunion was greatly reduced.

[99] Although forced marriages exist in areas under insurgent control,[100] there is generally little voluntary prostitution and pre-marital sex in the country according to the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF).

[110][111][4] Many women and young girls are forced into prostitution due to poverty, lack of job opportunities, culture, and the disintegration of the family unit.

A sex worker can earn around 1.5 million Ugandan shillings (£439) per month, whereas this would be a yearly wage for a secondary school teacher.

[137] In 1983 there was a major effort to eliminate sex work in post-independence Zimbabwe by rounding up hundreds of women and detaining them until they could prove they were not involved in the trade, otherwise they were sent to resettlement camps.

[11] As a result of Arabization of the country, the rise of Islamism[140] and the civil unrest following the economic downturn caused by the 1980s oil glut, brothels were banned in 1982.

[140] There are however two brothels that continue to operate under the former French occupation rules of registration and medical examination with the complicity of the Algerian authorities.

Morocco's increasing reputation for attracting foreign pedophiles made it sign various international treaties to deal with the problem.

Prostitution is widespread and takes place on the street, bars, hotels, brothels and the cabs of long-distance trucks.

[172][173] Prostitution in Eswatini is illegal, the anti-prostitution laws dating back to 1889,[174] when Swaziland was a protectorate of South Africa.

[176][177] Senator Thuli Mswane[178] and NGOs Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation (SASO), Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Mpumalanga Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have recommended that prostitution be legalised in Swaziland, in order to allow it to be regulated to reduce harm to the prostitutes and limit the spread of HIV.

[185] Prostitution takes place all over the country, particularly in border areas, transport corridors, Walvis Bay and the capital Windhoek.

[185] Prostitution is illegal in South Africa for both buying and selling sex, as well as related activities such as brothel keeping and pimping[11] However, it remains widespread.

[194] In 2009, Voice of America reported that the number of prostitutes in Burkina Faso had increased as a result of the country's poverty.

[198][203] In Côte d'Ivoire, prostitution itself (exchanging sex for money) is legal, but associated activities, such as soliciting, pandering or running brothels, are illegal.

[238] In July and August there is an influx of students from various areas of West Africa who work as prostitutes during the summer vacation.

[242] Nigerian men prefer to cross the border to seek sex as the punishment in Islamic Nigeria is 50 lashes for "procuration of woman".

In Southern Nigeria, the activities of pimps or madams, underage prostitution and the operation or ownership of brothels are penalised under sections 223, 224, and 225 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.

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.

[264] 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.