10 African countries with the highest levels of modern-day slavery

In the 21st century, the word "slavery" may seem distant, however, the unpleasant reality is that slavery is still in existence all across the world, and Africa is no exception. Despite tremendous progress in numerous areas, modern-day slavery persists casting a cloud over the progress made in ensuring human rights. Much like the rest of the world, Africa still experiences bits of slavery in its modern civilization.

To elaborate, modern-day slavery according to Walk Free (an international human rights group focused on the eradication of modern slavery), takes many forms including forced labor, forced or servile marriage, debt bondage, forced commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, and the sale and exploitation of children.

In Africa, these forms of exploitation manifest in diverse contexts, from domestic servitude particularly in young girls to forced labor in industries such as mining, agriculture, and fishing.

The pervasive existence of contemporary slavery in Africa is exacerbated by systemic failings in governance and law enforcement. Weak legal frameworks, corruption, and insufficient resources all impede attempts to eliminate slavery effectively.

According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, approximately 50 million people in the world are considered modern-day slaves.

These estimates, collected by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), serve as the foundation for Walk Free's flagship report, the Global Slavery Index (GSI), which presents national estimates of modern slavery for 160 countries.

The global data portal enables anyone to gain insight into the 2023 Global Slavery Index data, allowing you to compare countries and regions for each measurement. The three factors considered for the GSI include the prevalence rate, which this list is based on, the vulnerability levels, and government response.

Eritrea ranks number one on this list, and number 2 globally after North Korea.

With that said, here are the 10 African countries with the highest levels of modern-day slavery, based on prevalence rate:

Methodology for prevalence rate

"Measuring the scale of modern slavery in 160 countries. These national estimates of the prevalence per thousand people and number of people were calculated using individual and country-level risk factors of modern slavery. The analysis draws on thousands of interviews with survivors of modern slavery collected through nationally representative household surveys across 75 countries and Walk Free's assessment of national-level vulnerability. Unlike the national scores for vulnerability and government response, our data on the scale of modern slavery cannot be disaggregated (for example, by form of modern slavery or gender)."