Men found guilty of rape in the Nigerian state of Kaduna will be surgically castrated. Anyone who rapes a child under the age of fourteen will receive the death penalty. That states a new law that was introduced in the state.
Women accused of rape of a minor will have their ovaries removed; if it is an adult, they get life imprisonment.
The new law will replace a previous one, which provided a prison sentence of 21 years in prison for the rape of an adult and life for the rape of a child.
According to Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna, “drastic measures are needed to better protect children from a heinous crime”.
Since measures were introduced in the country to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the number of rapes has increased enormously. Women’s associations are calling for stricter measures against rapists and sex offenders, including the death penalty.
“If everyone who raped me had been neutered, others they might have raped too would be spared the disaster,” Dorothy Njemanze
Gender activist Dorothy Njemanze, herself a rape victim, hopes the law will be introduced in other Nigerian states as well. “In hindsight, if everyone who raped me had to go through that (the surgical castration, ed.), Then others they may have also raped were spared the disaster.”
Nigeria is the most densely populated country in Africa, with 214 million inhabitants. According to UNICEF, there has been a crisis of sexual violence for years: one in four young women and girls is sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 18.
The new legislation comes after massive protests over the death of Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old student who was raped and beaten to death. She was found half-naked and in a pool of blood in the church of which she had been a member for years. The suspect was arrested after his fingerprints were found on the fire extinguisher used to beat the young woman to death.
