Gender-based violence deadly as COVID-19 – Experts

Social development experts in Osun State have declared that gender-based violence (GBV) is as deadly as the coronavirus pandemic.

The experts said this in Osogbo, the state capital, in their separate presentations at a post COVID-19 community development intervention training organized by the Osun Agency for Community and Social Development Project (Osun-CSDP).

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Participants at the training included community development desk officers from ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and local government areas from across the state.

The experts lamented that rape and other forms of GBV were rampant during the lockdown the state government declared as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The General Manager, Osun State Agency for Community and Social Development, Mrs Funmi Aderonke Abokede, said GBV should be declared as another pandemic and urged leaders and all and sundry to stand against it.

Abokede observed that the lockdown trapped many women at home with their abusers, leading to an increase in the rate of abuses like defilement and rape.