BY PATRICIA TAFT*

This report summarizes the main findings as detailed in three memos produced during the seventh quarter of data collection and analysis. This quarterly report covers the time period from February to April 2016.

Over the quarter covering the three months of February to April 2016, there were 223 reported incidents of VAWG across the eight NSRP focus states, coming from all deployments of the online platform. As with previous quarters, the main reported themes of VAWG incidents were child sexual abuse, domestic and gender-based violence, and VAWG incidents that occurred within the wider context of insecurity, most often tied to insurgency, cultism, and general crime. There was also an increase this quarter in VAWG incidents that occurred within the context of inter-communal conflict, particularly between herdsmen and local communities in the Middle Belt and Delta state. In the wider Niger Delta, abductions and kidnappings targeting women were also on the rise.

In the Northeast, while reported violence continues to be centered around the insurgency and counter-insurgency, there has been an increase in reports of domestic violence, including spousal abuse and the denial of widow’s rights. In Bayelsa and Delta states, which do not have observatory service points, VAWG often occurred within the context of politically-motivated violence, such as abductions of politicians and their families, as well as cult and gang-related violence.

*Kendall Lawrence and Hannah Blyth contributed to this report.