HODSAS (Homme Pour le Droit et La Sante Sexuelle) have released a statement denouncing an increase in harassment in DRC, and highlighting the disproportionate costs of COVID-19 tests at the borders of DRC-Rwanda, and DRC-Burundi.
Regional updates: Africa
Coalition Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre pour le travail du sexe (CAfOC-TS) have issued a statement reporting on the human rights abuses and violence experienced by sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in francophone African countries.
CAfOC-TS – which is made up of organisations including UMANDE, And Soppeku, Blety, AFAZ - Association Femme Amazone, Alcondoms Cameroun, YERELON+, and HODSAS – work to address the problems faced by French speaking sex workers in Central and West Africa.
New Frame have written a feature on the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers in South Africa, looking specifically at the damaging impacts of criminalisation and the need to maintain a focus on the long-term policy changes that position sex workers as equal and protected citizens.

In April 2020, NSWP launched a global survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers.
AP News has published a report on the impact of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic on sex workers living with HIV. Speaking with sex workers and organisations from Rwanda and Zimbabwe, the article highlights the multiple ways that the current crisis is affecting those who do not have access to government support schemes.
Last week, the Uganda Key Populations Consortium (UKPC) and other civil society organisations released a statement strongly denouncing raids, arrests, extortion, and violent attacks targeting sex workers, barmaids and other vulnerable communities by police, Local Defense Units (LDUs), and Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) during the response to the spread of COVID-19.
В конце февраля в Африке был зарегистрирован второй случай инфицирования COVID-19. С того момента инфекция проникла во все части света: 32 000 человек были инфицированы и около 1400 умерли.
Пандемия, которая обнажила существующее неравенство и в непропорциональной степени сказалась на тех, кто подвергается уголовному преследованию, маргинализации и живет в ситуации хронической нехватки финансов, сказалась и на секс-работниках Сенегала в Западной Африке.
NSWP is seeking to recruit a Policy Officer to join our Policy Team, led by the Senior Policy Officer, working on developing global advocacy tools for our members and reviewing external policy documents in line with the NSWP Consensus Statement and the priorities set by the NSWP Board.
Sex worker organisations and other human rights groups have condemned the arrest and violent mistreatment of women by police, who arrested more than 100 women at nightclubs in Abuja last week. It has been reported the women were arrested under sex work laws, although many of the women deny being sex workers.
International human rights organisations have condemned recent the harassment and arrest of gay men in Tanzania, following comments from a government official on plans to establish a task force to identify, track down and arrest people suspected of being gay.