- June 11, 2023
More Than 3,400 Women Go Missing in Peru in Four Months
Last Updated: June 11, 2023, 12:12 IST
Indigenous women protest against the government of Peru´s President Dina Boluarte in the framework of International Women’s Day in Lima on March 08, 2023. (Photo: AFP)
In 2022, more than 5,380 women, mostly girls and teenagers, were reported missing, a figure 9.7 percent lower than in 2021
More than 3,400 women were reported missing in Peru between January and April this year, the Ombudsman’s Office reported on Saturday.
In the office’s report — titled “What happened to them?” — the first four months of 2023 saw 3,406 complaints of missing women filed. Only 1,902 were found, and 1,504 are still missing, the report said.
Peru’s “situation… as to disappearances would be classified as a situation of imminent danger,” said Isabel Ortiz, deputy for the Ombudsman.
“The State is not taking action to prevent these types of events,” which happen each year in the Andean nation of 33 million people, she said.
“The State is not making the issue of disappearances (mostly kidnappings and abductions) a priority agenda item.”
In 2022, more than 5,380 women, mostly girls and teenagers, were reported missing, a figure 9.7 percent lower than in 2021.
According to various feminist NGOs, the police and the prosecutor’s office do not sufficiently investigate many cases because they believe that the women fled voluntarily.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
