More than 200 prostitutes went on a rampage in a town in southern Nigeria, torching buildings after their own homes had been destroyed in a government crackdown.
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The sex workers destroyed huts, kiosks and canteens belonging to cattle traders in the town of Amansea after a state agency had earlier wrecked their homes in an effort to rid the community of prostitution, according to the Nigerian publication Vanguard.
"They are very wicked and inhuman," one sex worker named Rachael told the Nigerian news agency, according to AFP.
"How can they destroy our houses without notice, leaving behind some kiosks and canteens that belong to cattle traders?"
The Anambra State Urban Development Board which carried out the raid disputed the claim the prostitutes were given no notice.
ASUDEB general manager Nathan Enemuo told Vanguard that the board had given the sex workers three weeks' notice.
"A lot of prostitutes live around Amansea cattle market, spoiling our children and constituting nuisance in the area and you know that anywhere there is brothel, criminals and kidnappers hover around there," he said.
The local Nigerian government is battling to rid the region of criminal activities associated with prostitution, which is itself illegal. It plans to extend the effort to other towns where sex workers are active, Vanguard reported.
Nigeria, located in West Africa, is the largest country in the continent with 174 million people. It's divided between a Muslim majority in the north, where the Islamist militants Boko Haram are active, and a Christian majority in the south.
