Africa

Trafficking Across the Continent

Africa is both a major source and destination region for human trafficking. The continent’s trafficking landscape is shaped by armed conflict, extreme poverty, weak governance, porous borders, and deeply entrenched cultural practices that normalize exploitation. Unlike trafficking in wealthier regions, which tends to be dominated by organized criminal networks, African trafficking often operates through kinship networks, community brokers, and traditional practices that blur the line between cultural norms and exploitation.

The UNODC estimates that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a disproportionate share of global trafficking victims, with children representing the majority of detected victims in the region; a higher proportion than in any other part of the world. Trafficking flows are complex: intra-regional movement dominates, but significant routes also run to Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.

West Africa: Nigeria & Regional Networks

West Africa, particularly Nigeria, is the epicenter of African trafficking. Nigeria functions as a source, transit, and destination country, with trafficking networks extending across the continent and into Europe. The country’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has identified multiple trafficking corridors: northward through the Sahara to Libya and onward to Europe, westward to other West African nations, and eastward to the Middle East.

Nigerian Trafficking Networks

Nigerian trafficking operations are among the most sophisticated on the continent. Networks based in Edo State (particularly Benin City) have historically dominated the trafficking of Nigerian women to Europe for sexual exploitation. These networks operate through a chain of recruiters, transporters, madams, and money launderers that spans multiple countries.

What makes Nigerian trafficking networks distinctive is their use of traditional spiritual practices as a mechanism of control. Recruiters take victims to traditional shrines where juju priests perform oath-taking rituals ; known as juju ceremonies ; that bind victims to their traffickers through spiritual coercion. Victims are made to swear oaths over objects including nail clippings, pubic hair, blood, and underwear. They are told that breaking their oath ; by failing to repay debts, fleeing, or cooperating with authorities ; will result in madness, death, or harm to their families.

The psychological power of these oaths cannot be overstated. European law enforcement agencies have documented cases where Nigerian trafficking victims refuse to cooperate with police, testify in court, or accept assistance from NGOs because of the enduring terror instilled by the juju oath. Italian prosecutors have noted that some victims only begin to speak about their trafficking after being reassured by Nigerian pastors or traditional healers that the oath has been spiritually “broken.”

The Journey to Europe

The primary route for Nigerian trafficking victims bound for Europe runs northward through Niger, across the Sahara, through Libya, and across the Mediterranean to Italy. This journey typically takes weeks to months and is extraordinarily dangerous. Victims face dehydration, starvation, sexual assault, kidnapping by bandits, and death in the desert. Those who reach Libya often face months of additional exploitation before the Mediterranean crossing; itself one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.

IOM estimates that as many as 80% of Nigerian women arriving in Italy by sea are trafficking victims. Many arrive with debts of €30,000 to €60,000 imposed by their traffickers; debts that must be repaid through years of forced prostitution in Italian cities.

Other West African Trafficking

Beyond Nigeria, trafficking is pervasive throughout West Africa. Ghana, Senegal, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire all experience significant internal and cross-border trafficking. Child trafficking for labor exploitation is particularly widespread: children are trafficked to work on cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, in gold mines in Burkina Faso and Mali, and as domestic servants across the region.

Lake Volta. Ghana

The fishing industry on Lake Volta in Ghana has been extensively documented as one of the most visible sites of child trafficking in West Africa. Children as young as four are sold by impoverished families to boat operators for amounts as small as $20–50. The children work hauling nets, diving to untangle lines from underwater obstacles, and paddling canoes in dangerous conditions. Drowning is common. Children who are unable to perform their tasks are beaten or denied food. The International Justice Mission, which has partnered with Ghanaian authorities on Lake Volta rescues, estimates that thousands of children are trapped in this form of exploitation at any given time.

Cocoa Industry. Côte d’Ivoire & Ghana

The West African cocoa industry, which produces approximately 70% of the world’s cocoa supply, has been documented as reliant on child labor, including trafficking. NORC at the University of Chicago, in a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, found that an estimated 1.56 million children were engaged in hazardous work in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana during the 2018–2019 season. Children are trafficked from Mali, Burkina Faso, and other neighboring countries to work on cocoa farms, where they use machetes, carry heavy loads, and are exposed to pesticides. Despite a 2001 industry commitment (the Harkin-Engel Protocol) to eliminate the worst forms of child labor from cocoa supply chains, progress has been slow.

Libya’s Slave Markets

In November 2017, CNN broadcast undercover footage of migrant auctions in Libya; showing African men being sold as laborers for as little as $400. The footage shocked the world, but for migrants and refugees trapped in Libya, the reality of open slave markets had been documented by the UN, IOM, and human rights organizations for years prior.

The collapse of the Libyan state following the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi created a power vacuum that trafficking networks rushed to fill. With no functioning central government, competing militias and criminal organizations took control of migrant routes and detention centers. Sub-Saharan Africans traveling through Libya, whether as economic migrants, refugees, or trafficking victims, became commodities to be bought, sold, ransomed, and exploited.

Migrants detained in Libya, whether in official government detention centers or militia-run warehouses, are subjected to forced labor, sexual violence, torture, and extortion. Detainees are forced to call relatives to wire ransom payments, often while being beaten so that family members can hear their screams. Those who cannot pay are sold to other groups, forced into agricultural or construction labor, or killed.

Women and girls face particular dangers. Multiple UN agencies have documented widespread sexual violence against female migrants in Libya, including systematic rape in detention centers, forced prostitution, and sale into sexual slavery. The UN Support Mission in Libya reported that sexual violence against detained migrants is “pervasive and systematic.”

East Africa: Domestic Servitude & Cross-Border Trafficking

East Africa experiences widespread trafficking for both labor and sexual exploitation, with domestic servitude representing one of the most prevalent, and least prosecuted, forms. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia serve as source, transit, and destination countries for trafficking victims.

Kenya

Kenya is a hub for trafficking in East Africa. Internal trafficking is extensive, with children and adults moved from rural areas to urban centers, particularly Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu, for domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, and manual labor. Kenyan women and girls are also trafficked to the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, for domestic servitude under the kafala system. Many depart through labor recruitment agencies that charge exorbitant fees and provide misleading information about working conditions.

Uganda

Uganda faces significant trafficking challenges, including the trafficking of children for domestic labor and sexual exploitation. The country also serves as a transit point for trafficking victims from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and other conflict-affected neighboring states. Refugee camps in northern Uganda, which host over one million South Sudanese refugees, have been identified as sites where trafficking and exploitation occur.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the largest source countries for labor trafficking to the Middle East. Despite a government ban on labor migration to Gulf states imposed in 2013 (later lifted in 2018 with new regulatory frameworks), hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian workers, predominantly women, have traveled to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, and other Gulf states through both legal and illegal channels. Reports of physical abuse, sexual violence, wage theft, passport confiscation, and confinement are widespread.

Central Africa: Child Soldiers & Mining

Central Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), exemplifies the intersection of armed conflict, natural resource extraction, and human trafficking. The region’s protracted conflicts have produced some of the most severe forms of trafficking documented anywhere in the world.

Child Soldiers

The recruitment and use of child soldiers is one of the most visible forms of trafficking in Central Africa. The DRC, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and northern Nigeria have all seen the mass conscription of children into armed groups. The UN estimates that tens of thousands of children have been recruited by armed forces and armed groups in the DRC since the late 1990s.

Children are abducted from villages, separated from families, and forced to fight, carry supplies, serve as spies, or provide sexual services. Girls are frequently subjected to sexual slavery and forced “marriages” to commanders. Boys who refuse to fight may be killed as examples. The psychological trauma inflicted on child soldiers, forced to commit violence, often against their own communities, creates lasting damage that persists long after demobilization.

Mining & Mineral Exploitation

The DRC’s vast mineral wealth, including cobalt, coltan, tin, tungsten, and gold, has fueled both conflict and trafficking. Artisanal mines in eastern DRC operate with minimal oversight, and trafficking for forced labor in these mines is well-documented. Adults and children are forced to work in dangerous conditions, often under the control of armed groups that profit from mineral extraction.

Cobalt mining has received particular international attention. Amnesty International and other organizations have documented the use of child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC, which supplies more than 70% of the world’s cobalt; a critical component in lithium-ion batteries for smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Children as young as seven work in hand-dug mines, exposed to toxic dust, cave-ins, and physical abuse.

Southern Africa: South Africa as a Destination

South Africa is the primary destination country for trafficking victims in southern Africa. Its relatively strong economy, extensive transportation infrastructure, and porous borders make it a magnet for both economic migrants and trafficking victims from across the continent. Victims are trafficked to South Africa from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, the DRC, Ethiopia, and numerous other countries.

Trafficking within South Africa takes multiple forms. Women and girls from neighboring countries are trafficked into the sex industry, particularly in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. Labor trafficking is prevalent in agriculture, domestic work, construction, and the informal mining sector. South Africa’s informal gold mining operations, known as zama zama mining, are particularly dangerous, with undocumented migrants forced to work in abandoned mine shafts under conditions that constitute forced labor.

Internal trafficking is also significant. South African children are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers for domestic work, street vending, and sexual exploitation. The legacy of apartheid-era inequality continues to create conditions of extreme vulnerability that traffickers exploit.

Gold Mining & Trafficking

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) across Africa is deeply intertwined with human trafficking. From the mines of Burkina Faso and Mali to those of Tanzania and the DRC, forced labor, including child labor, is endemic. The sector is largely unregulated, operating outside formal economic structures and beyond the effective reach of labor inspectors.

Human Rights Watch has documented the extensive use of child labor in gold mines across multiple African countries. In Mali, children as young as six work underground in narrow, unstable shafts, breathing dust that causes silicosis, and handling mercury used in the gold extraction process; a potent neurotoxin. In Tanzania, children carry heavy loads of ore, spend hours in water-filled pits, and work without protective equipment. Many are trafficked from their home villages by intermediaries who promise their families income from the children’s labor.

The gold produced in these mines enters global supply chains through networks of local buyers, regional traders, and international refiners. The opacity of gold supply chains, combined with the ease of melting and mixing gold from multiple sources, makes traceability exceptionally difficult, allowing trafficked labor to remain hidden within legitimate commerce.

The Role of Conflict

Armed conflict is the single most powerful accelerant of human trafficking in Africa. Conflict destroys governance structures, displaces populations, creates refugee crises, and empowers armed groups that use trafficking as both a weapon of war and a revenue source. The relationship between conflict and trafficking is circular: trafficking funds conflict, and conflict produces the displacement and vulnerability that trafficking exploits.

In the DRC, decades of conflict in the eastern provinces have produced one of the largest and most protracted humanitarian crises in the world. Armed groups use sexual violence, including forced marriage, sexual slavery, and mass rape, as deliberate strategies of warfare. The UN has described the DRC as “the rape capital of the world, ” though advocates argue this label obscures the deliberate, strategic nature of sexual violence as a tool of territorial control.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014 brought global attention to the use of abduction and trafficking by armed groups. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign became one of the most prominent social media advocacy campaigns in history, drawing responses from world leaders including U.S. President Obama and UK Prime Minister Cameron. Despite the global outcry, more than 100 of the Chibok girls remained unaccounted for nearly a decade later. Boko Haram and its splinter groups have abducted thousands of additional women and girls since Chibok, forcing them into marriage, sexual slavery, combat roles, and use as suicide bombers.

In South Sudan, all parties to the civil war have recruited and used child soldiers, and sexual violence against women and girls has been documented on a massive scale. The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan documented the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, with women abducted, held as sexual slaves, and passed among fighters. The ongoing conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region has followed similar patterns, with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) documented committing sexual violence and forced displacement that creates conditions for trafficking.

Domestic Servitude Across the Continent

Domestic servitude is arguably the most pervasive yet least visible form of trafficking in Africa. The practice is deeply embedded in cultural norms across much of the continent, where the placement of children with wealthier relatives or family friends for domestic work, a practice sometimes called confiage in francophone Africa or vidomegon in Benin, has historical roots in extended family networks. While these arrangements can be benign, they frequently become exploitative, with children subjected to excessive work hours, physical abuse, denial of education, and isolation.

The hidden nature of domestic servitude, occurring behind closed doors in private homes, makes it exceptionally difficult to detect and prosecute. Labor inspectors rarely enter private residences, and victims themselves may not recognize their situation as trafficking, particularly when cultural norms frame domestic work by children as a normal family obligation.

In West Africa, the restavek-like practice of placing children as domestic servants is widespread. In Benin, an estimated 50,000 vidomegon children serve as domestic workers in conditions ranging from benign extended-family care to severe exploitation. In East Africa, domestic workers trafficked to the Middle East face conditions that frequently constitute forced labor. Across the continent, domestic servitude intersects with gender inequality: the vast majority of domestic trafficking victims are women and girls, reflecting both the gendered division of domestic labor and women’s subordinate social position in many African societies.

Talibes in West Africa

In Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and The Gambia, an estimated 100,000 talibe children, boys sent to study the Quran at daaras (Quranic schools), are subjected to conditions that constitute trafficking. While religious education is the ostensible purpose, many daara teachers (marabouts) force their students to beg in the streets for daily income quotas. Boys who fail to meet their quotas face severe physical punishment. Human Rights Watch has documented cases of children chained, beaten with electrical cords, and denied food and medical care. Despite government pledges to regulate daaras and eliminate forced child begging, enforcement has been minimal, in part because of the cultural and religious authority of marabouts.

Major Trafficking Routes

Africa’s trafficking routes are shaped by geography, conflict, and economic disparity. The primary routes include: the West Africa-to-Europe corridor (through the Sahara, Libya, and across the Mediterranean); the East Africa-to-Gulf States corridor (from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Gulf countries); the Southern Africa corridor (from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi to South Africa); and extensive intra-regional movements that cross porous borders with little or no documentation.

The Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy has been the deadliest migration corridor in the world, with IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documenting over 25,000 deaths and disappearances since 2014. Many of those who die on this route are trafficking victims, recruited with false promises and abandoned or exploited at every stage of the journey. European efforts to reduce migration, including cooperation with Libyan coast guard forces that intercept boats and return migrants to detention in Libya, have been criticized for effectively trapping trafficking victims in conditions of exploitation.

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