From Ciudad Juárez to Nigeria: Epidemic of femicide and culture of impunity

IN 2001, eight female remains were discovered in a cotton field near Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. These weren’t isolated incidents, but part of a femicide trend that had claimed the lives of hundreds of local women. While families called for justice, Mexican officials were apathetic and lax in their duty of facilitating the delivery of justice. This led to the Inter American Court of Human Right’s groundbreaking ruling that condemned Mexico’s failure to investigate the murders. The state was also ordered to pay reparations to the families of the victims. Nigeria is traveling the same perilous route today. At least 20 incidences of femicide, each a clear indictment on a system still failing women, have been recorded since the start of the year 2025. Women are dying in their homes at the hands of partners and family, on the streets, and in places where they ought to feel secure. Like in Ciudad Juárez, the path to justice for victims’ families is like penance upon their grief. The tragedy of Ciudad Juárez is not unique to Mexico, in fact it was a predictor of what was to come across the globe. Should Nigeria fail to move quickly and with utmost rigor, it is Ciudad Juarez all over again.

The murder of the women in Ciudad Juárez was not an isolated crime wave; it was a sign of a culture that had long neglected violence against women. For years, women had been disappearing, their remains recovered only later in isolated places. Law enforcement ignored the cases, blamed the victims and left families withoutclosure while perpetrators carried on with impunity. It was only until worldwide pressure increased that the Mexican government was obliged to admit the situation. In 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concluded that Mexico had failed in its obligation to safeguard women and ordered the government to compensate the victims’ families. The verdict also compelled improvements to combat gender-based violence. Ciudad Juárez had become a symbol of institutional failure; a dreadful example of what happens when countries allow a culture of sexism to distort and render its governance structures powerless.

Is Nigeria already Ciudad Juárez or nearly there? The increase in the incidences of femicide is a horrendous reality of the danger that Nigerian women face daily, made worse by the systemic weaknesses that make it easy for preparators to escape justice. Where is justice for Bamise, Vera, Austa and Barakat? All murdered in the past few years with the numbers climbing already this year. We have had to grapple with the murder of Yetunde Lawal in February; a student of Kwara College of Education who was dismembered by someone she supposedly met briefly, and Success Izekor was murdered by her husband of 8 months in February alone. Just a few weeks before this, Salome Adaidu was killed and chopped into pieces by a man claiming to have been in a relationship with her. Despite overwhelming evidence, he had pled not guilty to her murder. Even though comparison between Cuidad Juarez and Nigeria is not the goal here, the conditions that make spaces unsafe for women exist in the two locations as with every other place where gender-based violence constitute a menace. For instance, social conventions that consider women as sub-humans and property to be debased and disposed of cruelly and at whim are foundational and common to societies with high GBV prevalence.

The ease with which irrational views gain traction and lead to heinous murders of women is disturbing. Dahare Abubakar, a 67-year-old woman from Kano State was accused of witchcraft and murdered by five men, who have now been sentenced to death. Witchcraft accusations against women are not unusual, the lives of the ‘Witches’ of Gambaga in Ghana tell us as much. Women are even being killed in their homes by children they birthed and raised;Mrs Fatima Umukoro and the mother of Mathias Amude are examples. The internet has also become a site of VAW, even though it plays a vital role in advocacy and awareness. It has become particularly triggering for many women who log on to social media only to be reminded of the magnitude of danger they are susceptible to because they see themselves in the victims.

Although it has been almost two and half decades since Mexico was held liable for the Cotton Field murders, it remains a notorious place for GBV. Is Nigeria on the path to the same degenerate state? Who is going to hold the Nigerian government responsible the way the Inter American Court of Human Rights did Mexico? The consistency of the murders of women reflects the Nigerian nation state’s failure in its duty to protect. The African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls is a welcome development that can perhaps play a crucial role in reminding Nigeria that it can be held culpable based on the binding nature of such a comprehensive treaty. In fact, the Heads of State Circle of Champions on Positive Masculinity for the Convention is a good enough place to start. Femicide is a masculinity problem and a focus on masculinities, is needed for a holistic response.It adds to the robust approach that must be used to correct an anomaly of this scale and depth, just like the Inter American Court mandated. The institutional and social flaws compounded by cultural complicity is exhausting and the urgent need for reforms must be stressed on the occasion of this International Women’s Day.

Nigeria needs to take decisive steps at all levels towards combating the monstrosity of femicide by intensifying already existing efforts and prioritizing the establishment of positive masculinity structures, human and non-human in all social institutions even as we continue to demand swift and proportionate justice for Vera, Austa, Yetunde, Salome, Bamise and many others. The world once watched Ciudad Juárez; today, it is watching Nigeria, will we be a pariah? At what point do we say it is enough?