A Double Pandemic: Rape and child sex abuse in the Age of COVID-19

The number of people reporting experiences of rape and child sex abuse increased sharply during the first four months of the coronavirus pandemic, figures from the Ethiopian women and child minister shows.”As a result of looking at the information that we had from those sessions, it was clear that the abuse was escalating in both frequency and severity,. So a lot of the kids that were coming to the hotline were feeling pretty vulnerable and traumatized. And it was a direct result of COVID-19, because they were quarantined with their abuser. The abuser was now abusing them on a daily basis.” expertise says.

Types of child abuse children experience since the lockdown cuts across physical, mental, emotional, sexual abuse, child labour, neglect of children, maltreatment, and economic abuses. Before, and during the lockdown, several children have been raised in highly sexualized environment or homes, including being exposed to, or be at the receiving end of sexual, harassment, indecent exposure, denied access to education based on culture and religion, acts of intimidation, humiliation, manipulation, and threats, forced or conditional separation from families. And in the extreme incidence, cases of detained children born in jail exposed to harsh prison life. Use of trickery, physical force, threats or emotional manipulation to elicit cooperation have been reportedly common not to mention peer sexual pressure and abuse, especially among adolescents.

Minors being targetted for sexual abuse by men is also a concern that has been on the rise, according to Almaz Abreha, Chief Executive Officer of Addis Ababa women and children office. She said her foundation has handled cases relating to children under 18 years-olds. The most targeted group she says are those between 11 and 15 years who are just coming into puberty.