"Prostitution in Ethiopia has increased massively in the last years. In the capital Addis Ababa, around 130,000 girls support themselves by selling their bodies. Most of the girls are under eighteen, many as young as fourteen. The youngest girls hardly earn enough money to buy their own food, whilst the experienced prostitutes make about two US dollars a night. Condoms, although free in many places, are rarely used. Men prefer to choose the youngest girls since they believe they are HIV free. This keeps lowering the age of those becoming HIV infected.
I met these girls in Addis Ababa and started photographing them. Since many girls don’t have a home they take naps in between pleasing their customers and their days are spent at a hairdressing salon, drinking coffee, sharing their food and sleeping in turns in the back of the shop."
-Berta Banacloche (full story at here, all photos were by this author)

​Ethiopia – A  missing girl who was taken and beaten by seven much older men attempting to force her in a marriage with one of them was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, on telephone from the  capital of Bita Genet.
She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” Wondimu said. Her siblings were shocked by the abduction and her rescuers. Four abductors have been caught so far.                                                                                                        Photo by Rod Waddington
A True miracle’
The girls family and friends feel this is a miracle but Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said the girl may have survived because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn’t eat her,” Williams said. These abductions however are not that uncommon here in fact the UN estimates almost 70% of all Ethiopian marriages are by forced abduction.

"Eritrea’s Ambassador to the UK and Ireland addresses a report on the human trafficking networks targeting Eritreans. The report tiled The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond was compiled by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen, Meron Estefanos and Prof. Conny Rijken." -Lightsandcamera