Over 1,000 SGBV cases recorded in Kaduna

Kaduna State recorded no fewer than 748 reported cases of emotional and psychosocial abuse and 349 cases of physical assault in 2023,Despite the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act.

The Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development (MHSSD), Hajiya Rabi Salisu, revealed this at a second biannual shared learning event and dialogue session on Public Private Partnership (PPP) and private sector engagement (PSE) on Tuesday in Kaduna

Represented by Hajiya Maryam Muazu, the Director of the Youth Development Department of the Ministry, Salisu said the data was a combination of males and females who were victims of the types of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) from January to December 2023 in the state.

She added that the emotional and psychosocial abuses, which have a high rate, representing 37.7 per cent were perpetrated by survivors’ family members or those very close to them, like husbands, fathers, and wives, among others.

She, however, said that physical assaults, which were fewer, represented 17.6 per cent.

Salisu explained that there were different types of SGBV, where people only knew about rape, but added that there was a high number of domestic violence, which is a type of emotional and psychosocial violence.

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She revealed that the state had recorded significant success in tackling the menace, which made the state currently positively reporting on a national dashboard.

“Kaduna State is now 5th on the national dashboard despite joining it in March 2023.

We met other states that joined three years ago and were even supported by partners to report data.

“We, however, joined recently and are now 5th among the 36 states and Abuja in terms of reporting SGBV data,” Salisu said.

The commissioner said that the state’s feat in reporting on the national dashboard meant that it had broken the culture of silence where people shy away from reporting cases.