Cameroon Sex Trade: Another Xenophobic attack in the making

Chinese installed in Cameroon, no longer perform only small jobs in the informal sector. The Chinese are no longer only in the sale of ice water on the markets, mobile phones and donuts. Increasingly, the Chinese are present in the oldest profession in the world-the sex trade.

Not in the back streets and in dangerous corners in the cities of Douala and Yaounde but in private clubs. In Bastos, an upscale neighborhood in the nation’s capital Yaounde and home to wealthy Cameroonians and many expatriates and where there are a high concentration of Asian restaurants and private clubs, the Chinese have indulged in private striptease sessions and offer them to the highest bidder.

Under cape Cameroonian prostitutes complain that the appeal of these Chinese on their more affluent customers is slowly but surely pushing them out of busy particularly in the Bastos vicinity where customers of prostitutes have the power of the purse.

The echoes of this rivalry between Chinese prostitutes and Cameroon have gotten to daggers-drawn position with some Cameroonians openly threatening the Chinese.

Recently, Cameroon Concord gathered intelligence revealing the existence of a prostitution network operated by Asian and Italian prostitutes, who landed in midweek at the Yaounde Nsimalen International airport and traded throughout the weekend and left the country.

The network is powered by highly placed political figures with links to four-one-niners.