Africa-Press – Cape verde. The coordinator of the National Plan to Combat Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents, Nilson Mendes, today gave a positive assessment of the implementation of the operational plan for the period 2024-2025, and highlighted significant progress in prevention.
According to the official, the period had a positive outcome, with 37 actions of the plan completed out of 185 activities.
Nilson Mendes added that these results include the implementation of instruments such as the creation of the institute, the implementation of listening rooms in the judicial districts, legislative review and improvements in the flow of care and notification of the health system, and the repeal of some decrees.
In the area of prevention, the same source highlighted the intensity of campaigns in communities and the coordination with other sectors, culminating in a strong link with municipal committees and strategic sectors, such as tourism and security.
Among the initiatives, he highlighted the “Protect” campaign, which involved training aimed at agents of the National Police, Judicial Police and municipal police, integrated into the preventive axis.
Regarding the data, the coordinator indicated a decrease in the number of complaints.
In 2024, the Cape Verdean Institute for Children and Adolescents (ICCA) registered 184 cases involving children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years nationwide, while in 2025 that number dropped to 144.
Data from the Public Prosecutor’s Office also points to a slight reduction, since “in 2023-2024, 644 cases were filed in the courts nationwide, and in 2024-2025, 624 were filed,” he explained.
For Nilson Mendes, this evolution reflects the impact of the joint work between the institutions.
When asked if the plan has kept pace with the work of the Justice system in terms of criminalizing reported cases, Nilson replied that there has been progress, since in the year 2023/2024, 196 people were criminalized at the Public Prosecutor’s Office level.
The island of Santiago continues to register the most cases, followed by Fogo and São Vicente, while the island of Maio, in contrast, stood out for the absence of complaints to the ICCA in 2025.
Even so, he warned that the increase in complaints in some regions may reflect greater awareness, due to people reporting more.
The coordinator rejected the idea that tourist islands concentrate more cases of violence and explained that within the tourist context there have not yet been any complaints of this type.
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