Every 10 minutes, a woman is killed by a lover or relative, alarming UN report shows

Edited By: Anamica Singh
New Delhi Updated: Nov 30, 2024, 11:09 AM(IST)

The highest number of these deaths happened in Africa where 21,700 women lost their lives. Photograph:( Others )

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A majority of femicide cases saw women dying at the hands of a lover or a relative 

A United Nations report has revealed startling statistics about women being killed at the hands of their partners across the world. The shocking study states that a woman or girl dies at the hands of an intimate partner or close relative every 10 minutes. This translates to six every hour and 140 women every day losing their lives because of someone who was supposed to love them.

The UN Women and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in the past year alone, 51,000 women and girls were intentionally killed by an intimate partner or family member. 

The report, titled, Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides, states that 85,000 cases of femicides were reported in 2023, of which two-thirds were at the hands of a partner or relative.

The highest number of these deaths happened in Africa where 21,700 women lost their lives. Asia was next with 18,500, the Americas with 8,300, and Europe reporting 2,300 deaths in 2023.

Also Read: Lover kills girlfriend in Bengaluru, spends two days with corpse before taking off

The tragic figures are not surprising, considering the number of cases of women suffering at the hands of men close to them that have been reported.

Butcher chops live-in partner's body, another stabs girlfriend

In India, two such cases came to light this week itself. A man in the state of Jharkhand strangled his live-in partner and then chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces. The man was a butcher by profession and the gruesome killing went unnoticed for nearly 15 days. The human body parts were discovered by a stray dog near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.

The 24-year-old woman had been living with the accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, for a few years in Tamil Nadu. However, he married another woman in Jharkhand without telling her. The couple were in Khunti, Jharkhand when he murdered her in a forest as he did not wish to take her home. 

In the second incident, a woman from Assam was killed by a man she met on social media about six months ago. Maya Gogoi and Aarav Hanoy checked into a service apartment in Bengaluru on Saturday (Nov 23). He stabbed her and spent two days with the corpse in the apartment before leaving on Nov 26. 

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