More than 197 Nigerian women, including teenage girls, were suspected to have lost their lives to gender-related violence between January 1 and December 31, 2025, according to DOHS Cares Foundation’s femicide report.
The figure represents a sharp increase from 2024, when 133 Nigerian women and girls were allegedly killed under similar circumstances.
Details of the findings were published on the foundation’s tracker dashboard, which collates data on suspected femicide cases across the country.
According to the UN Women, femicide is defined as “the intentional killing of women and girls because of their gender,’ distinguishing it from homicide, where the motive may not be gender-related.
DOHS Cares Foundation is a non-governmental organisation focused on combating gender-based violence and monitoring femicide cases in Nigeria.
The report documented 172 suspected femicide cases nationwide, which resulted in 197 deaths during the period under review.
“With 172 cases of femicide and 197 deaths in 2025—and still counting—it’s safe to say femicide in Nigeria is a pandemic, a crisis that continues to escalate without decisive action,” the report stated.
Explaining why the number of deaths exceeded the number of reported cases, the founder of DOHS Cares Foundation, Ololade Ajayi, told PUNCH Metro on Tuesday that a single incident could involve multiple victims.
“In some cases, bodies are found in one location and reported as a single case, but with multiple deaths.
“Sometimes, the victim is killed alongside her children,” she said.
PUNCH Metro reports that several cases highlighted in the report illustrated the brutality of the violence.
In November, for instance, 19-year-old Loveth Uloma was allegedly killed in Enugu State by her 51-year-old uncle, Emmanuel Nwangwu, following years of alleged sexual abuse.
In December, a 35-year-old woman, Rifkatu Yohanna, was found dead in her marital bedroom in Borno State, with deep cuts on her neck and body.
She was reportedly killed by her 17-year-old neighbour, Aliyas Amir, who claimed he attacked her while attempting to steal her phone and power bank.
In Kwara State, Opeyemi Bello, a receptionist at Femdak Hotel, was allegedly strangled to death at her workplace.
The suspect, Yusuf Ibrahim, 26, an ex-staff member of the hotel, was said to have been seen scaling the hotel fence as Bello screamed for help.
Another case cited was the death of Edwolo, who was found stabbed to death in a hotel room in Delta State in October.
The hotel owner, Isaiah Eyone, told the police that he had left the premises the previous night and returned the next morning to find her in a pool of blood.
In Lagos State, Temitope Odu was allegedly strangled to death by her husband, Christopher Odu, following what the report described as a long history of domestic violence.
Their son reportedly testified that his father had physically abused his mother for more than two decades.
Reacting to the findings, Ajayi said, “Femicide in Nigeria is a national emergency, not isolated violence.
“Data from our Femicide Observatory shows that dozens of women and girls are killed once every 49 hours across the country, simply because they are female — mostly by people they know and trust.
“These are preventable deaths, enabled by weak accountability, silence, and systemic failure. Nigeria urgently needs clear legal recognition of femicide, a national tracking system, and decisive action to protect women’s lives.”
A United Women report published in November 2025 described gender-related killings as “the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls.”
Similarly, a joint report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women, released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, warned that femicide “shows no signs of slowing down.”
Although Nigeria currently has no law that specifically criminalises femicide, public outrage over the killings has continued to grow, alongside renewed calls for legal reforms and concrete measures to prevent violence against women and girls.
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