Over 1,200 children in Zambia abused in second quarter of 2020

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Zambia Police have revealed that 1,256 children were abused countrywide during the second quarter of 2020, representing 28 percent of all the victims of gender-based violence.

According to the Gender Victim Disaggregated Data released on Tuesday by Police, out of the 1,256 child-victims, 999 were girls, representing 80 percent, while 257 were boys.

During the second quarter of 2020, 4,409 cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) were recorded by Police. The statistics further indicate that 2,356 were female adult victims, while 797 were male adult victims representing 53.4 percent and 18.1 percent respectively.

A comparison with the second quarter of 2019, 6,139 GBV cases were recorded last year compared to 4,409 recorded during the second quarter of 2020 showing a decrease by 28.2 per cent to 1,730 cases.

Under sexual abuse, 795 cases of sexual offences were recorded representing 18 percent of all the reported cases. Out of this number, 596 victims were girls translating to 74.9 percent, 173 victims were female adults translating to 21.8 percent, 16 victims were boys translating to two percent, while 10 victims were male adults translating to 1.3 percent.

A total of 554 cases of child defilement, all girls, were recorded representing 12.6 percent of all the recorded GBV cases.

The capital, Lusaka province, recorded the highest number of child defilement cases with 206 translating to 37.2 percent of the child defilement cases reported countrywide.

Further, during the period under review, the country recorded 24 GBV murder cases compared to 20 recorded in the second quarter in 2019, showing an increase by 4 cases or 16.7 percent increase.

-0- PANA MM/MA 25Aug2020