A fact-finding mission by the United Kingdom Home Office report seen by Sunday Standard has reveled that while Botswana is facing a gender-based violence crisis nobody at the government enclave appears to know the true scale of the problem.
According to the report titled ‘Country Policy and Information Note; Botswana: Women fearing gender-based violence’ paints a picture of a country paralysed not only by violence against women, but by an absence of official data on arrests, prosecutions and convictions.
The report reveals that despite repeated requests by the UK fact-finding mission team, Botswana authorities failed to provide statistics on how many GBV cases are investigated, prosecuted or result in imprisonment.
‘There are no official figures for the number of GBV cases which are arrested or prosecuted,’ the report states. It added that even the Botswana Police Service (BPS) had not supplied promised statistics by December 2025.
The report shows that the FFM team asked the BPS ‘whether the statistics will show that some of these GBV cases are prosecuted and lead to sentencing, and that people end up in prison for their crimes.’
‘ The OFFICIALS confirmed this. [NB the BPS did not supply the requested statistics in follow up correspondence,’ says the report.
The secrecy surrounding Botswana’s GBV crisis appears to extend across government institutions.
The French Embassy in Botswana also raised concern over the lack of transparency.
Diplomatic officials interviewed by the UK mission said the absence of statistics made it impossible to properly assess the national situation.
‘Nothing really happened afterwards,’ one official observed while discussing recent killings of women. ‘There was a week of prayers that was organised rather than something concrete to address the issue.’
In a chilling coincidence, a murdered University of Botswana employee was reportedly killed during that very week of prayer, the report quoted the French official as saying.
The report says ‘In n interview with the french embassy, The FFM team asked if the FE were aware of data on the number of arrests, prosecutions and convictions.’
‘ The FFM team noted that there was a general lack of data, all evidence is anecdotal, therefore it is difficult to assess what is happening generally,’ notes the report.
It says one of the diplomats t the French embassy ‘acknowledged it was difficult to get a clear picture of the situation [without data], did not have more specific figures.’
A United Nations Population Fund official admitted the organisation had repeatedly requested statistics from authorities without success.
‘There’s usually a reluctance to share data,’ the official said.
The official reportedly added that; ‘You ask for that from the police. They’ll refer you to the courts. Access to administrative data… is quite a challenge. Where it involves law enforcement, it’s even harder.’
The report shows that the FFM team asked whether there were any numbers or data on how many women migrate from smaller villages and rural areas to towns such as Gaborone to avoid family issues, and numbers of cases of them being pursued?
‘UN OFFICIAL noted that [UNFPA] did not have such data. [Lack of data] was why they had been talking to government about trying to update the 2018 study. The reason they get to hear about cases is because they end up with the police again,’ the report says.
The official is also quoted as saying that ‘ A woman was moving from Kasane because her boyfriend was abusing her and we only [got] to know about it from the police report that ended up in the mainstream media. It’s not even all the reports that end up in the media.’
The official also stated that even data on teenage pregnancies or migration of abused women fleeing violent partners is difficult to obtain in Botswana.
The report says ‘She explained that there’s usually a reluctance [to share data]. You ask for that from the police. They’ll refer you to the courts. There’saccess to administrative data, whether it’s from Ministry of Health-the rates of teenage pregnancy, something as simple as that – [or elsewhere], is quite a challenge.’
‘The police are not so generous with their data,’ the official was quoted in the report as saying.
The UK mission says government claims that prosecution rates improved from 51 percent in 2021 to 68 percent in 2022 have also come under scrutiny.
But the report says authorities failed to explain what offences were included under GBV, how many actual cases were prosecuted, or which courts handled them.
Representatives of the Gender Affairs Botswana recalled a presentation made before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in May 2025 in which a Ministry of Justice representative allegedly cited only three successful abuse prosecutions.
‘The number was just appalling,’ the representatives said. She was quoted as saying; ‘Three successful, but there was no context of three out of how many.’
The report questions about whether Botswana truly understands the scale of violence facing women or whether authorities are deliberately keeping the public in the dark.
The report suggests that without reliable statistics, experts warn, policymakers cannot measure the effectiveness of interventions, identify repeat offenders, or track whether victims are receiving justice.
The government and the Botswana Police Service did not respond to request for comment.