Domestic abuse against women and children increased significantly during lockdown in Ethiopia. The closure of schools and anti-violence centres played a role.
Confined to their homes and with limited exposure to the public, women saw abuse at the hands of family members rise during the pandemic months in various parts of the world. Among the countries where the issue emerged most prominently is Ethiopia, with a report published in June speaking of 100 girls abused and 50 women raped in the capital since the lockdown measures began in March.
Domestic violence is one of the many harmful effects of the ongoing pandemic. As the World Health Organization has highlighted, in some European countries calls for help from women to dedicated helplines were 60 per cent higher than in the same period of the previous year.
In India, an alarm was raised in May over several cases of child abuse after the country restricted the movement and social life of the population.
In Nigeria, the surge in rape cases over recent months led the country's governors to declare a state of emergency, while thousands of people took to the streets against gender-based violence and the movement Women against rape Nigeria (Warn) was born.
Ethiopia is also grappling with issues of this kind — violence that is by no means new. According to a national survey published in 2019, 35 per cent of married women in the country had experienced sexual or emotional violence from their husbands. These figures come on top of the stark statistic that 65 per cent of women in the country have undergone genital mutilation, according to a UN Women report. It is a society where abuse and violence against women and children are not only commonplace, but where the very victims of violence end up being further marginalised by society in what amounts to a stigma of rape suffered.
In Ethiopia, Covid-19 has made itself felt, albeit far less severely than in other parts of the world. By mid-June, figures showed around 3,500 recorded cases of infection and 60 official deaths. These numbers led the government on one hand to introduce social distancing measures, while on the other they did not translate into a full lockdown as happened elsewhere. It is in this context that the 100 cases of abuse against minors and the 50 cases of violence against women were recorded in the capital Addis Ababa alone.
The crucial factor in this regard was above all the closure of schools. "The problem is that, unlike when schools were open, the violence is not visible on the bodies of the victims until the girls become pregnant," said Almaz Abraham, head of the government department for women and children; "men who carried out this type of violence outside their homes are now doing the same to their relatives."
Another critical aspect, linked to the pandemic and directly connected to the issue of domestic abuse, concerns Ethiopian anti-violence centres. There are several across the country, but today they are not equipped to carry out Covid-19 screening and for this reason, as well as social distancing rules, some have been closed while others have reduced their capacity. This, combined with fear of contagion, is placing many women before a crossroads: leaving their homes and taking on all the short-term health risks, or continuing a life of abuse over the long term within their own four walls.
The Ethiopian government in recent years has amended its legislation, excluding crimes such as rape from those eligible for amnesty and lengthening prison sentences for perpetrators of sexual offences. But evidently this has not been enough to bring about radical change, as the news stories of recent weeks make clear.
