The nuber of rapes and assaults on girl children in Nigeria has risen horrifically in recent months, according to IRIN:
“In the last six months, police in Kano, the commercial hub of northern Nigeria, recorded 54 cases of child rape and made 60 related arrests.
The number of cases is two thirds higher that the number recorded in the first six months of 2007.”
What is particularly disturbing is the ages of those committing these assaults and the ages of the victims:
“The suspects are usually males between the ages of 45 and 70 while their victims are mostly girls of between three and 11 years. “We have cases of young men raping minors but the number pales by comparison to the rape cases involving older men,” Abba, the deputy police chief (in the town of Kano), said.”
The reasons given for the crimes against these young girls need to be addressed immediately and not accepted as cultural justification for this unspeakable misogynist violence, as the following statement seems to do,
“Experts gave a number of reasons for the phenomenon. “Some [men] have this superstitious belief that they can cure themselves of [sexually transmitted diseases] particularly HIV/AIDS, [through rape]” according to Aminuddeen Abubakar, an Islamic scholar in Kano.
“Others believe that they can become rich if they commit this wanton act of irresponsibility,” he said.”
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