A total of one hundred and fifty one Sexual and Gender Based Violence, SGBV survivors have been rescued by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons NAPTIP in Sokoto state in the last six months.
An official of NAPTIP, Hassana Mikaillu says, one hundred and three of these survivors are girls and forty eight of them are boys all survivors of one form of abuse or the other.
She revealed this during a panel discussion at the opening of a four day media dialogue with media practitioners on ethical reporting and advocacy to eliminate violence against women and girls in Sokoto state under the EU UN Spotlight Initiative programme.
She says the abuses range from sexual assault, unnatural offences, child labour, child trafficking and molestation and other emotional and physical assault of the children.
According to her, most of the survivors have since been reunited with their parents after rehabilitation.
She says pressures and interference from highly placed personalities are parts of the challenges the organisations is facing in the discharge of it’s responsibility.
She however, commended Sokoto state governor Aminu Tambuwal who has severally given the organisation the needed support to carry out its assignment with a particular mention of his role in resolving a sexual assault case in the state.
Delivering his speech at the meeting, Chief of field office, UNICEF, Sokoto, Mohammed Fall expresses concern about the rise in the rate of violence against women and children especially girls across the nation.
He says a national study on violence against children has revealed that before the age of eighteen, six out of ten children were victims of some form of violence and one in four girls as well as one in ten boys are victims of sexual violence and the majority of children report multiple incidents.
According to him, less than 6% of Children who are victims of sexual or physical violence have asked for help and less than 5% of those who have asked for help are receiving help.
Mr. Fall says the fight against violence against the most vulnerable groups requires a collective effort and that it will be impossible to achieve result without the Support of media institutions.
