Police, gender body vow to intensify GBV fight

The Rwanda National Police (RNP), in collaboration with Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), has vowed to combat all types of Gender Based Violence in the country.The two institutions made the pronouncement yesterday during a one-day consultative meeting that drew officials from the two institutions.“GBV and its related crimes are some of the factors that can stop any country from achieving sustainable development. It’s in this regard that I call upon you, as policemen and officials from GMO, to join efforts in fighting against such crimes in your respective duties,” Christophe Bizimungu, Commissioner of the Criminal Investigations Department who officially opened the meeting, said.He appealed to the GMO management to always share information concerning GBV with the Police, which he said, would enable them to effectively and efficiently prevent and fight against GBV cases.In an interview with The New Times, Inspector of Police, Belline Mukamana, the Director of Anti-GBV and Child Protection Unit, disclosed that the number of defilement cases had significantly reduced compared to previous years.According to Mukamana, there were 2,033 defilement cases in 2006, but last year, the number declined to 1,733, saying it was due to various sensitisation campaigns against GBV among the population carried out by RNP.She revealed that cases of rape also reduced from 403 in 2006 to 287 last year, adding that the number of women killed by their husbands fell from 35 cases in 2006 to 24 in 2011.However, Mukamana pointed out that the number of men slain by their wives was currently on the rise, noting that six men were murdered by their wives in 2006 but rose to 12 last year