How to activate and unlock my iphone 5c?

I live in Africa and my aunt purchased a locked iphone 5c from the US Based on the model number (A1456), i'm to believe it's that of a sprint carrier.
My aunt was the one to activate and unbox the phone and she had put in a few things i did not like. So when i got it, i decided to format it (big mistake) and now, it's asking for me to put in a sim for activation… This is my problem, i don't have access to a sim from the US, my aunt is no longer around.i'm pretty much stuck.

Also, if i manage to activate it, can i unlock this cdma phone to be used outside the US?

Any help will be appreciated.

Ok, well the only way to activate it is to put the sprint sim card in there. But i don't know if it will work in your country. The only way I'm sure that will work is to call or have your aunt call sprint and tell them she needs the iPhone unlocked because she is going overseas or something. But they have certain rules to get it unlocked.

1) Account Spending Limit customers are not eligible for GSM international services currently.
2) Device must be active on the account for 90 days or more.
3) Only one unlocked device per subscriber Service Agreement.

But if you want you can call sprint international, you might be lucky. (888) 226-7212.

If that doesn't work, you can try something called the R-SIM. It is a small device which you place under the sim card you want to use.here is their website. My friends uses one on his iPhone 5 and it works fine. But i do believe to use it, the iPhone must be activated. But you can give it a shot since it isn't really expensive. Here is their official website.http://www.rsim5.com/

Wish you the best of luck

Buy a phone in Africa. Defrauding the US Carrier is illegal, and even if you have no conscience or ethics, it's difficult to get a phone from another country unlocked and usable. There are occasionally also issues with cellular frequencies, as phones sold in different parts of the world are often set to use slightly different frequencies to match local networks.