Police in Southern Region of Malawi have expressed concern over the increase of defilement cases in the region this year.

Community Policing Coordinator for the region Senior Superintendent Alex Simenti, said the cases have increased from 246 last year from January to October to 266 this year in the same period.

Simenti said that expressed concern that people seem to choose to be ignorant on the country’s laws despite many sensitization campaigns.

He said: “It is very bad that despite the effort we are putting in as police but people are still in the forefront doing this bad behavior.”

Simenti added that despite the rapid increase, they are happy that at least people in some parts of the region are now reporting the malpractices to police.

“As the police we are happy that people have now realized that these issues must be reported to the police so that justice prevails,” he said.

Simenti added that the Malawi Police Service is very alert and ready to act on any reported cases.

He said that they will continue sensitizing communities in the region to deal with the malpractices.