A youth organisation in Phalombe has expressed concern over the increase in gender based violence (GBV) cases in the district.
During the period between the months of January – April 2020, the district has registered 123 cases of GBV. There were 91 cases during the same period in 2019.
Following an interface meeting with area development committees in the area of sub traditional authority Phweremwe and senior chief Nkhulambe respectively, Phalombe Youth Arms Organisation (PYAO) executive director, Vincent Thom expressed concern over the rise.
Thom said: “The rise in cases is worrisome, that why with support from ViiV Healthcare we were here with our friends from the police, judiciary and social welfare to tell these local leaders here about the status of the GBV in Phalombe, and it’s our hope that targeting these will help us to disseminate the message.”
He added that there is need to have mobile courts which should be hearing the cases within the communities because that long distances to the courts is also fueling the rise of cases.
Community Policing Coordinator for Phalombe police station, Inspector Miltons Moyo, said there is a possibility that the figures might go higher if all people facing the violence had been reporting their cases.
“These figures aren’t giving us a clear picture of status of the GBV cases in the communities, it is possible that these cases are more than 123, however people are not reporting cases due to different reasons,” said Moyo.
In his remarks, Chairperson for the GBV technical working group for Phalombe, Damson Banda, who is also a Magistrate expressed concern over the increase in reported cases of GBV at the police and that something has to be done to stop the increase.
“This is very sad to us as the group and the district, these figures are worrisome, I’m worried that if this will be the case then we may end up this year with high number of cases. We will have to do something.
“We need to make resolutions with other non-governmental organisations who are working towards ending GBV cases in the district so that we should have awareness campaigns across the district to end the violence,” said Banda.
