Over 6000 violence cases logged

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
A TOTAL of 6176 cases of gender-based and sorcery-related violence were recorded in seven provinces between 2013 and 2016, according to Oxfam International.
A report on understanding gender-based and sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea was launched yesterday in conjunction with the Inap Nau Laikim na Lukautim campaign in Port Moresby.
Oxfam reported that 232 of those cases were sorcery-related.
Veronica Simogun, the director of Family of Change, an advocacy group in Wewak, said the data collected in the four years “looks at the profiles of gender-based and sorcery-related violence cases reported, and not the prevalence of gender-based and sorcery-related violence”.
Simogun said the 232 cases related to sorcery were from the Highlands.
“These do not mean that sorcery issues do not occur in other regions in the country,” she said.
The report outlined the most common types of complaints, their causes, perpetrators profiles, services provided and the referrals to assist victims.
The report says 78 per cent of the complaints received were from females.
The most commonly reported complaints were physical, sexual, verbal abuses at other centres, and sorcery-related violence in the Highlands.
The common causes of the complaints are marriage problems, adultery or polygamous relationships, financial disagreements, lack of control, forced sex, alcohol and drug abuse, cultural practices and sorcery accusations.