ZAMBIA POLICE OFFICERS COUNSELLED
ZAMBIA police officers un der the Victim Support Unit ( VSU) have been urged to provide professional ser vices to victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV) re gardless of gender.
This is because GBV vic tims, especially males, should be attended to pro fessionally due to cultural stereotypes associated with their gender.
Inspector General of po lice Lemmy Kajoba is how ever, saddened that wom en and girls remain the majority victims of GBV in the country.
Mr Kajoba said there is need to raise awareness on gender based violence and encourage victims to report cases to the police and deter wound be offenders.
He disclosed that a total of 26, 370 cases of GBV were reported across the country in the year 2020 compared to 25, 121 recorded in 2019.
He further disclosed that for North Western province in 2020 alone, about 2,459 GVV cases were recorded.
“And this year, the prov ince has so far recorded 708 GBV cases,” said Mr Kajoba.
Mr Kajoba said this in a speech read for him by Western Province Deputy Commanding officer Charity Munganga, during
the simultaneous code named BASADI operation in Solwezi.
He revealed that the ob jectives of the operation are to prevent gender based vio lence crimes, receive reports of GBV, provide pyscho-so cial support to victims of GBV and investigate and ar rest offenders.
He urged the VSU in the
province to enhance data collection on GBV cases if the vice is to be eradicated.
“And as police command, we remain committed to accelerating gender main streaming in the Zambia Police Service by ensuring that both men and women officers have the right treat ment and opportunities.