Lockdown: 1,718 children sexually abused, assaulted in Lagos alone — DSVRT

No fewer than 1,718 children suffered sexual and domestic assaults in Lagos, the state’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) says.

The number is part of a total of 3,193 cases received DSVRT received in 2020.

DSVRT said the lockdown policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic played in part in a spike in abuse cases in the year in review.

Statistics revealed that for 2016, there were 450; in 2017, there were 1,044 cases, while 2018 had 2,356 cases; 2019 had 2,284, while 2020 had the largest: 3,193.

Most actions taken or referrals made for reported cases of sexual and domestic violence were referrals to the police which account for 894 of the reported cases, data shows.

DSVRT said:

“From January 2020 to December 2020, DSVRT received a total of 3,193 reported cases. This accounts cumulatively for the 1,718 reported cases involving children and 2,584 reported cases involving adults.

“From January to December 2020, DSVRT recorded 2,584 reported cases with 91 per cent of reported cases for adults, involved female survivors while 235 accounting for 9 per cent of reported cases for adults involved male survivors.

“The result above shows that most of the reported cases for adults involved female survivors; adult reported cases bordering on rape had 62 survivors; attempt to commit rape and threats had 136 reported cases; sexual assault had 150 cases, domestic violence had 1,887 cases and 349 other cases.

“The data below reveals that most actions taken and referrals made for reported cases of sexual and domestic violence were referrals to the police which account for 894 of the reported cases, followed by mediation which accounts for 659 of the reported cases.

“The chart shows the trend of handled cases from the year 2016 to 2020 with a notable rise in the slope of handled cases between 2019 to 2020.”