Post-war poverty boosts Liberia's sex trade

Nine years after a brutal civil war, Liberia's economy is slowly recovering. But poverty is still widespread and the sex trade is rife, as a visit to some of Monrovia’s red-light areas shows.

In 2003 Liberia came out of a brutal conflict which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced at least a million others in camps inside and outside the country.

Nine years on the economy is slowly recovering and foreign investors are scrambling to exploit the opportunities and natural resources in Liberia.

Alongside these developments, the sex trade is  booming.

Most Liberians live on less than one US dollar a day and due to limited economic opportunities, many young women are turning to prostitution for a living.

In the capital, Monrovia, and other major towns and cities sex workers regularly parade at street corners and along busy roads to wait for clients.