The increasing use of drugs and alcohol, especially among teenagers, has become a serious concern for residents of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund in the Erongo Region.

This was shared during the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Social Development, and Family Affairs consultations on gender-based violence and femicide in the towns.

Committee chairperson Gotthard Kasuto says consultations follow a petition in 2020 by the Shut It All Down Movement to Parliament seeking an end to sexual violence and femicide.

Residents of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, as well as stakeholders, are of the view that the high rate of GBV cases is attributable to the abuse of drugs and alcohol.

They want measures to root out the escalating use of drugs among teenagers, whose minds are mentally damaged and become abusive.

Those from the LGBTQ community are worried that the existing protections against gender-based violence are not extended to them, resulting in an increase in violent crimes against them.

Statistics from the Namibian Police in the Erongo Region recorded about 1,300 cases of GBV from 2021 to the end of 2023.

While about 300 cases of rape and attempted rape were reported to the police during the same period.