Sexual abuse on the rise in Kitgum
Jul 29, 2007
SEXUAL gender based violence (SGBV) is on the increase in Kitgum district, with five female children defiled everyday on average. The District Probation Officer, Lucy Otto, said this recently.
By Cornes Lubangakene
SEXUAL gender based violence (SGBV) is on the increase in Kitgum district, with five female children defiled everyday on average. The District Probation Officer, Lucy Otto, said this recently.
“The problem is increasing mostly in the IDP (internally displaced people’s) camps in the district, with at least five girls under 18 years of age defiled per day, creating this alarming situation,†Otto said.
She added that the areas most affected by the problem are Palabek Kal, Omiya Onyima, Labongo Layamo, Akwang and Kitgum town council.
Otto said the victims of abuse are being so traumatised that they were refusing to go to school for fear of being humiliated by their colleagues.
She added that their efforts to bring the defilers to book are being ruined by the parents of the victims, who negotiate with the defilers to be paid compensation out of court.
Otto was speaking while receiving equipment worth sh30m from the UNDP’s Gulu sub-office head recently.
The equipment, which included two computers and printers, is part of a one-year, $360,000 (sh601m) project to help fight SGBV in northern Uganda.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Gender and Social Development with funding support from the UNDP.
The computers are to be used to keep records of cases of abuse and to collect data from the sub-counties.
SEXUAL gender based violence (SGBV) is on the increase in Kitgum district, with five female children defiled everyday on average. The District Probation Officer, Lucy Otto, said this recently.
“The problem is increasing mostly in the IDP (internally displaced people’s) camps in the district, with at least five girls under 18 years of age defiled per day, creating this alarming situation,†Otto said.
She added that the areas most affected by the problem are Palabek Kal, Omiya Onyima, Labongo Layamo, Akwang and Kitgum town council.
Otto said the victims of abuse are being so traumatised that they were refusing to go to school for fear of being humiliated by their colleagues.
She added that their efforts to bring the defilers to book are being ruined by the parents of the victims, who negotiate with the defilers to be paid compensation out of court.
Otto was speaking while receiving equipment worth sh30m from the UNDP’s Gulu sub-office head recently.
The equipment, which included two computers and printers, is part of a one-year, $360,000 (sh601m) project to help fight SGBV in northern Uganda.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Gender and Social Development with funding support from the UNDP.
The computers are to be used to keep records of cases of abuse and to collect data from the sub-counties.