Child Prostitution Goes Unchecked in Togo

In downtown Lome there is an area known locally as "The Child Market," where girls as young as nine are offered for sex, sometimes for less than a dollar.

Child welfare groups complain that Togo lacks strong laws to punish the pimps who ruthlessly exploit these children. And the kids themselves complain that the police who patrol the district and are supposed to protect them, simply demand sex for free.

 
Adjo is 11 years old and tries hard to look sexy in her black mini-skirt and skin-tight blue swimsuit top.

She told IRIN over a drink in a bar filled with cigarette smoke and drug dealers lurking in the background that she likes foreign customers best. They pay better and treat her more respectfully than Togolese men.

"The Ghanaians, the Ibos from Nigeria, the Senegalese and the other foreigners pay 5,000 CFA (US$10) and sometimes with a bit of luck they'll pay 10,000 CFA (US$20) - and despite that they treat us well," Adjo said.

"The Togolese maybe give us 1000 or 1500 CFA (US$2 or $3) and then want to rape us violently. They often hurt and insult us," the small girl said, visibly upset as she recalled such unpleasant memories.

Adjo's 13-year-old friend Amivi meanwhile complained that the security forces did nothing to help the girls by day and simply demanded freebies from them at night.

"The soldiers, who are supposed to protect us when they are on patrol want to have sexual relations with us without paying and we're too frightened to say no, so we have to accept without turning a hair," she explained.

Adjo says she never knew her real parents. But she and Amivi hand over all the money they earn to a woman whom they call "Mama".

If the girls give this woman too little cash at the end of a shift, they run the risk of a severe beating.

"At the end of every day I have to give the money to a woman called 'Mama.' If I don't have enough money to give her, I get beaten," Adjo said.

Besides Adjo and Amivi, there are several hundred other young girls aged between nine and 15 who can openly be bought for sex in the downtown area of Lome called Devissime. The name means "Child Market" in the local Mina language.

Many of these girls have been separated from their families. Others have simply been abandoned. Most are illiterate. Being alone in the world all of them are highly vulnerable to exploitation by pimps and brothel keepers such as 'Mama.'
“I never knew my parents,” explained Adjo, “I was abandoned and I’ve always had to manage on my own.”

Sometimes the girls sell themselves for as little as 200 CFA (40 cents). Only the better looking ones such as Adjo, can persuade their Togolese male clients to pay as much as 1500 CFA (US$3).

Adjo’s said her own punters were a mixed bunch. She said they varied from high school pupils and apprentice mechanics to wealthy members of Togo’s ruling elite, who had children of their own back at home. These older men tend to be infatuated with the youngest girls, she added.

There are no reliable statistics about the sexual abuse of children in Togo, but there is a general perception among social workers and child protection volunteers that the phenomenon has increased alarmingly in recent years.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40715&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=TOGO