Africa-Press – Mozambique. From January to March, out of a total of 20,000 calls received by Linha Fala Criança, at least 1,144 were designated cases of rape of minors.
In Mozambique, minors report a rape every two hours. The country records 14 cases daily, most of them related to premature unions, sexual abuse and access to education (data from Linha Fala Criança – LFC).
This reality is driving requests for more energetic actions from state institutions, with civil society saying the time for reflection and research has run out.
Reports of sexual exploitation have also prompted the rescue of dozens of girls from premature unions.
The majority of victims are female and, in some cases, under 12 years of age. Many are rescued from premature unions with men four to seven times their age. In other cases, unions are frustrated during the handover of the girl to the ‘bestowed man’ during the traditional ceremony.
Almost half of the cases were reported in the provinces of Manica, Sofala and Zambézia, in central Mozambique, followed by Nampula and Cabo Delgado (north), with fewer cases (12%) reported from the provinces in the south of the country.
“These numbers are the tip of the iceberg. They are the cases that passed through an institution and received treatment, which means that, beneath these numbers, there are more children and teenagers who have been raped,” says Simione Mhula, national manager of Child Protection at the Non-Governmental Organization World Vision Mozambique, an LFC partner.
Complaints keep growing
Among the most recent cases is the rape of a 13-year-old girl by an 82-year-old man, reported on Monday, 29th, in Chimoio, capital of Manica, following a complaint from her sister, which was taken to the authorities.
The minor, now six months pregnant, was allegedly repeatedly raped by a domestic worker.
“The child was left with the man while the mother went out to sell, and the man abused the child in the mother’s absence. Then, at my mother’s house, they noticed the child and saw that she was pregnant,” the girl’s sister explained. (Her identity remains protected.)
Wounds in the future
Last week, police arrested a man for raping his nine-year-old daughter, allegedly as part of a ritual for illicit enrichment.
“The police, upon learning through a complaint, did their job, culminating in the neutralization of this citizen, whose detention has already been legalized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. (…) It is a very worrying that [cases like these] tend to increase,” said Mateus Mindu, police spokesman in Manica.
Simione Mhula said that Linha Fala Criança facilitated and reinforced mechanisms for minors to access justice institutions and other support services for victims of rape, but noted that an increase in support was urgently needed.
“There are cases in which families report a premature union and the case ends up consummated, because the police had no means of intervening and preventing it. The budget for child protection is lower than desired,” Mhula said.
The activist warns that, if urgent and sufficient investments are not forthcoming, the country could see an accumulation of children traumatised by violations, who will in turn become injured adults in the future, possibly generating troubled families.
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