00:00Friends and family gathered in Yaoundé earlier this month for the funeral of Geraldine Achia,
00:06another victim of Cameroon's rising gender-based violence. Her husband is the prime suspect in her
00:13murder. After her death, her family found a series of photos on her phone showing her face covered
00:20in bruises. It's just like maybe a dream or something that maybe one day I'll wake up from
00:26it. The shock is too much for me to bear because I cannot believe that I was discussing with mom
00:32just this week, beginning this week and now like this. I'm sitting here knowing quietly where that
00:38mommy has gone. So the thing is actually it's a shock. I don't even know how to really believe
00:44it as a reality. But it's reality. In Cameroon, it's a growing reality for all too many families.
00:54At least 56 femicides have been recorded since the start of the year, almost 10 in August alone.
01:03But enough is enough. We can't keep on asking because when we're told that a woman has been
01:09murdered, it's not on the first day of violence that she's killed. It's after verbal violence,
01:15after silent violence, after economic violence that turns into physical violence,
01:20which then leads to this kind of tragedy. And when they live with this violence,
01:26when a woman wants to speak out, she's stigmatized. The growing toll has sparked
01:32anger from rights groups who accuse the government of inaction. Cameroon currently doesn't recognize
01:39femicide as a separate crime from murder.
01:43So a man can beat a woman in Yaoundé, she dies, and the magistrate might decide it was grievous bodily
01:49harm resulting in death. Another man can beat his wife in Garawa and she dies, and the magistrate
01:56may decide it was premeditated or non-premeditated murder. But if we have a specific law that already
02:03defines the notion of femicide, all the magistrates whose role is to apply the law will genuinely be
02:09required to impose the same penalties, because they'll all be working with the same definition
02:15of the notion of femicide. In response to the growing outcry, a bill to clearly define the crime
02:22will be considered during Parliament's November session. The scourge is continent-wide. Africa has
02:29the highest femicide rate in the world, according to the United Nations, with three cases per 100,000 women.
02:38The scourge is continent-wide.
