The number of complaints officially filed with the authorities for sexual violence in Mozambique increased 7% between 2020 and 2021, to 21,307 cases, according to data from the new bulletin of the National Statistics Institute (INE) consulted today by Lusa.

Several institutions estimate, however, that most cases remain unreported.

For example, regarding premature union, one of the crimes under analysis by INE, the authorities officially registered 398 cases in 2021.

However, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that Mozambique has one of the highest prevalence rates of early marriage in the world, with half of all girls being forced into marriage before the age of 18.

"In the context of Mozambique, the biggest impact on the prevalence of early marriage is school attendance: girls who attend school are eight times less likely to be married as a child than girls who never attended or dropped out of school," the UN agency highlights.

The data collected by INE show that three quarters of all complaints concern violence against women (one quarter against men) which grew by 10%, while complaints in which men are the victims dropped by 2.5%.

One third of the reported cases concern victims under the age of 17.

The main source of the publication was the General Command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, through the Department of Attendance to Family and Minors Victims of Violence.

The department captures occurrences through complaints reported by victims or third parties and by health services whenever they go for post-violence care and treatment.

In addition to complaints, the bulletin notes that "crimes against sexual freedom increased from 1,672 in 2020 to 2,074 in 2021, thus constituting an increase of 24%," most of which concern rape and child abuse.

Also with regard to criminal cases, the number of domestic violence cases increased by about 6%, by increasing from 11,262 in 2020 to 11,925 in 2021″.