Church leaders in Africa work to curb domestic abuse during lockdown

Church officials and experts say they are concerned over the rise in domestic violence during government-enforced measures to fight COVID-19. 

"We need to address the matter urgently. I think fear, panic and anxiety related to COVID-19 measures are to blame," Father Josiah Muthee Mugera, executive secretary of the Kenyan bishops' commission for the lay apostolate, told Catholic News Service.

Most African governments announced lockdowns and curfews in March.

Church officials said the confinement has triggered stress among the people while increasing tensions in homes, creating a fertile ground for domestic and sexual violence. 

"Many of the couples were not prepared for these changes. They have caused a lot of emotional imbalance and hopelessness. The people are now reacting, instead of acting ... there is a lot of hopelessness," said Father Mugera.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda, who chairs the bishops' justice and peace department, expressed similar sentiments.

"This period of coronavirus has brought members of the family together," he said in a video message. "And this has brought also other effects -- the effects of domestic violence, on (the) increase in some cases."

The South African Council of Churches said the cases of domestic abuse in the region had reached frightening levels, with the survivors living in lockdown with their abusers.

Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp said the bishops' justice and peace commission has moved to focus on changing men's behavior in efforts to tame the violence.

In Harare, Zimbabwe, the Jesuits' Silveira House is using national radio to urge an end to domestic violence, said Yvonne Fildah Takawira-Matwaya, who chairs the Zimbabwe bishops' justice and peace commission.

Meanwhile, Bishop George Zumaire Lungu, president of the Zambian bishops' conference, urged the country's Christians to shun violence and use the lockdown period to consolidate family ties.