President announces measures amid anger at authorities over recent murders of women

South Africa’s president has called on men to take more responsibility for violence against women as he announced measures to tackle the problem, amid anger at authorities over a recent wave of murders.

Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that not enough had been done to protect women. He said police would be reviewing unsolved murders, attempted murders and serious sexual offences against women and children, as well as producing a funded plan to reduce the forensic backlog for such cases, both within 60 days.

Arrest of Shadrack Sibiya comes as country reels from cases of femicide and alleged police corruption and criminality

One of South Africa’s most senior police officers has been charged with raping an 18-year-old woman and grooming a 16-year-old girl, as the country’s police face allegations of corruption and failing to tackle violence against women and girls.

Shadrack Sibiya, who was already suspended from his role as deputy national police commissioner over allegations he interfered with political killings investigations, was arrested on Monday. He is facing charges of rape, people trafficking, promoting the sexual grooming of a child and two counts of grooming a child.

A week after Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo’s body was found, runners took part in a morning run to honour her name and demand more protection

The runners smiled and laughed, congratulating each other on finishing their 5km or 10km Saturday run, their foreheads glistening with sweat in the early morning sun. They helped themselves to water, instant coffee and sugary snacks, provided by waiting volunteers on the lawn outside a gated community of modern apartment blocks, and then stretched out together.

But there were sombre moments too, as they mourned one of their own, who had lit up their Saturday runs around Sandton, an upmarket area of Johannesburg. Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo’s body had been found a week earlier, on Saturday 12 September. The 38-year-old went missing three days earlier, after going out for a run alone after work.

The country has one of the highest femicide rates in the world, and women are yet again being asked to remove themselves from public life to counter it

When I heard the authorities advising women in and around Kempton Park, the site of a recent spate of femicides, not to walk or run alone, to avoid isolated places and to “remain vigilant”, my immediate response was anger. Remain vigilant. How groundbreaking.

Women are already vigilant. We photograph number plates before entering vehicles. We share Uber details with friends. We phone one another while walking. We watch the driver’s route and notice every unexpected turn. We avoid certain roads, certain times and certain conversations. We scan parking areas before getting out of our cars. We check the back seat. We listen for footsteps. We carry pepper spray where we can. We hold our keys in a way that makes us feel slightly less defenceless.

String of female murder victims found near Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week

The discovery of the bodies of seven women around Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week, has prompted an outpouring of fear, grief and anger over a lack of progress in tackling femicide.

When Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo did not return after going for a run on 9 September, her eight-year-old daughter alerted relatives, who contacted police. The 38-year-old’s body was found on Saturday and identified by relatives on Monday. The news of her disappearance had gone viral.

Lorena Isceri was thrown off a motorway bridge, allegedly by ex-boyfriend Federico Vella

A 45-year-old woman abducted and thrown off a motorway bridge near Florence has become the seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August.

Lorena Isceri was abducted on Thursday afternoon, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, Federico Vella, in the Rifredi area of Florence, before being forced into the boot of his car and driven towards a bridge on the A1 motorway.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

The deaths of a Bulawayo mother and her daughters spark calls for an urgent action on gender-based violence

The three white coffins were draped in white lace and topped with small sprays of flowers. The mourners who filled a Bulawayo church last week to pay their respects to Zandile Tshuma and her daughters, Natalie, 15, and Nala, five, had not engaged in the usual tradition of first viewing the dead at their home: the bodies of this family had travelled all the way from England to reach their final resting place at Luveve cemetery on the edge of Zimbabwe’s second city, in Matabeleland.

While the deaths attracted few news reports in the UK, in Zimbabwe and South Africa, the tragic case has reignited concern over the region’s high rates of femicide. Many commentators on TV and social media expressed shock that a well-educated woman with a successful career abroad seemed as vulnerable to familial violence as a poorer woman in a southern African township.

Author Wendy Jones highlighted the trend in an Instagram post: ‘What is going on here?’

Nine of the 10 bestselling fiction paperbacks in the UK this week have one thing in common: a woman is murdered.

The novels, which appear on this week’s Sunday Times bestseller list, include The Secret of Secrets, The Divorce, The Names, The Family Friend, The Widow, The Impossible Fortune, The Hallmarked Man, My Husband’s Wife and Boleyn Traitor.

Karachi’s chief police surgeon condemns increasing acceptance of domestic murders and rapes of women and girls

A white-bearded man looks straight into the camera, in the video circulating for the past few weeks on social media. “I killed my wife,” he says calmly in Urdu. “We have a give-and-take arrangement and when she refused to give, I said I would take.”

Hours earlier, the 64-year-old had walked into a police station in Karachi’s Orangi neighbourhood and confessed to murdering Asma Begum, a 58-year-old mother of four, in the home they shared because she had refused him sex.

Sabine Nkusi, who fled Kigali during the genocide, leads initiative aimed at challenging stigma of sexual violence

As a 14-year-old, Sabine Nkusi witnessed the horrors of the genocide against the Tutsi in her home country of Rwanda. Fleeing Kigali with her parents, brother and sister, she saw women lying dead by the road, many who had been the victim of sexual abuse.

She vowed to God that if she survived, she would dedicate her life to trying to give dignity to women who suffered this unspeakable brutality. “I said to God … if I’m ever going to make it out of here … I want to be part of something … a vehicle to end that sort of violence.”

Country is shaken by the brutal murders of two girls, aged 14 and 17, whose bodies were discovered just days apart

Argentina has reacted with fury after the bodies of two murdered teenage girls were found just two days apart. The latest killings underscore the South American country’s enduring femicide crisis despite years of feminist campaigning, and have prompted alarm over the decision to cut support for victims of gender-based violence under the far-right administration of Javier Milei.

Police found the remains of Agostina Vega, 14, on Saturday, in a field on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba. She had been fatally strangled and her body had been dismembered, according to local media reports.

Figures recorded by Femicide Census in past 12 months indicate highest rate of matricide in 16 years

The names of 19 women believed to have been killed by their sons in the last year were read out in parliament on Thursday, as research showed that almost one in five women killed by men since the last International Women’s Day were suspected victims of matricide.

For the 11th year running, Jess Phillips read out the names of the 108 women killed in the UK by men – or where a man has been charged – in the past 12 months. In keeping with previous years, she had to request special dispensation to speak beyond the time given to each MP in the International Women’s Day parliamentary debate, because reading the names took more than five minutes.