One of the leading campaigners of #ArewaMeToo, an online campaign against sexual violence, especially against women, in northern Nigeria was arrested on Tuesday. Maryam Awaisu, a writer and activist, was arrested by men of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian police in her office in Kaduna. Her arrest, Amnesty International in Nigeria said, was in connection “to her involvement in seeking justice for victims of sexual abuse.”The Nigerian police is yet to comment on why Awaisu was arrested. A 2015 report by UNICEF notes that that one in four girls and one in ten boys had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. Actions such as the Tuesday arrest of Awaisu can deter victims of sexual violence from seeking justice.

Source: The Guardian February 19, 2019 20:37 UTC