50 female miners in Nasarawa sexually harassed within 6 months

No fewer than 50 female miners working at various mining sites in Nasarawa State have been sexually harassed by their male colleagues in the last six months.

This was announced by the organisation Women In Mining In Nigeria (WIMIN) on Monday at the opening of a three-day training for service providers on sexual gender-based violence in Lafia, the state capital.

The organization, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, also denounced the increasing number of cases of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and gender-based violence in the country and called on various stakeholders to take immediate action to put an end to this scourge.

WIMIN is a non-governmental organization committed to the inclusion of women at all levels of the Nigerian mineral exploration and mining industry. Its programs are based on community engagement, research, capacity building and strategic dialogue.

WIMIN President Janet Adeyemi disclosed that 90 percent of her members had been victims of sexual harassment by their male counterparts in the country in the last year, noting that this anomaly had become a widespread and worrying phenomenon in all mining sites.

She lamented that the situation in Nasarawa was a cause for concern and affected members of the group in all 13 local government areas of the state.

Adeyemi, who was represented by the NGO’s Vice President, Regina Edzuwah, appealed to service providers and stakeholders to show commitment in the fight against gender-based violence and sexual exploitation in their respective workplaces and communities.

She pointed out that women’s rights are the most abused and neglected, despite several campaigns to raise awareness on this issue.

Adeyemi said the training programme titled “Eliminating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Mining Communities” aimed to find solutions to the problem of gender-based violence against women.

According to them, the training program would cover several important topics, including understanding sexual gender-based violence, cultural and social norms that influence sexual gender-based violence, root causes and risk factors, legal frameworks and policies, survivor-centered approach and trauma-informed care.

The WIMIN President further said that the training aims to improve the capacity of service providers – including health professionals, police officers, social workers and community leaders – so that they can effectively support victims of sexual gender-based violence and promote a coordinated community response.

She said: “In most mining areas and communities in Nigeria, women are constantly mistreated, abused, overworked, underpaid, taken advantage of and even raped by the male workers and employees of the mining companies.

“The companies also illegally welcome the work of young children who should not yet be immersed in the mining environment but should be attending school. The mining companies overwork the children and overwork them, and their wages are paid to their mothers who also work on the mining sites.”

For her part, the Director of Public Defenders in the Nasarawa State Ministry of Justice, Justina Allu, acknowledged that over 50 cases have been reported to her ministry in the last six months, while stressing that the state government is committed to dealing with the perpetrators.