Lusaka leads as police say 9,700 gender-based assault cases recorded in Q1, 2024

Zambia Police has recorded about 9,700 Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases countrywide with Lusaka reporting the highest incidences.

This marked a decrease of 1,097 cases, equivalent to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the first quarter of 2023, which saw 10,797 cases.

In a statement issued in Lusaka on Saturday, Police Public Relations Officer Rae Hamoonga said out of the 9,700 reports, 6,966 were recorded as criminal cases while 2,734 were non-criminal reports which represented 71.8 percent and 28.2 percent.

“About 29 murder cases were recorded during the period under review, Hamoonga said.

He further stated that Lusaka Province had the highest number of Gender-Based Violence criminal cases, totaling 2,278, followed by Western Province with 988 cases.

Furthermore, Hamoonga said that the 2024 first quarter GBV disaggregated data indicated that 2,536 child victims were abused countrywide representing 26.1 percent of all the victims of Gender Based Violence.

“Out of 2,536 children, 2,130 were abused representing 84 percent in the criminal cases category comprising of 546 boys and 1,584 were girls,” he said

Hamoonga also said that 406 children were subjected to abuse in the non-criminal cases category, including 183 boys and 223 girls.

In addition, Hamoonga indicated that Lusaka Province recorded the highest number of child defilement cases of 234 followed by Eastern Province which recorded a total number of 100 defilement cases.

“A total number of 7,164 adults were abused countrywide representing 73.9 percent of all the victims of GBV, of which 5,679 were women while 1,485 were men, representing 79.3 percent and 20.7 percent respectively,” he added.

He said 4,836 were abused under the criminal cases category while 2,328 were abused under the non-criminal cases category.

“Out of the 1,485 men abused, 785 were under the criminal cases category representing 52.9 percent while 700 were under non-criminal cases category representing 471 percent,” he said.

Addressing the issue of gender vulnerability in the same period, Hamoonga reported that 7,486 female and 2,214 males were abused countrywide.

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