Harrowing pictures from inside city slums where thousands of HIV-infected prostitutes sell their bodies for £10-a-day

The lives of tens of thousands of HIV positive prostitutes dubbed the "Angels of Death" have been laid bare in a series of harrowing images.
The women - some as young as 14 - sell their bodies for just £2 a client in order to survive.



They have been forced into the horrifying conditions, where they often see up to five men a day in the Lagos slum of Badia - which is short for ‘bad area.’
The women are working in the trade in Nigeria, where nearly a quarter of female sex workers are living with HIV.

The poor West African country, with a population of 140 million people, has the third highest number of people with HIV/AIDs in the world - after India and South Africa.
The haunting images were taken by photojournalist Ton Koene.

He said as he arrived to the area, the driver said: "'If you arrive by car, you can smell the HIV virus outside'
"Nigerians have a lack of everything, except black humor."

But the women don't just face the threat of the disease, as many have experienced violence, rape, kidnap and theft in their work.



Many have been forced to pool their cash in a room, where it is guarded by a bouncer.
They live in small "pens," surrounded by display boards and rusty corrugated iron rooves.
Ton said: “How young and pretty the girl is determines how expensive it is. The men visit prostitutes as if they are walking into a bakery.

"Within five minutes they’re out, their trousers still unzipped.
"The youngest and hottest girls live in Badia, but outside the district.

"These girls have only one customer per night required for 50 to 100 euro it will go to his house or hotel."



It is estimated that 3.2million people living in Nigeria are living with the disease and 51% of the population are on anti-retroviral treatment, according to HIV/AIDS awareness charity Avert .

Although HIV prevalence among adults is remarkably small (3.1%) compared to other sub-Saharan African countries such as South Africa (19.2%) and Zambia (12.9%) an estimated 60% of new HIV infections in western and central Africa in 2015 occurred in Nigeria.
The country's capital of Lagos is believed to have 1.2 million people infected with the virus, which is the equivalent of the population of the Netherland's capital of Amsterdam.