<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">More than 3,400 women were reported missing in Peru between January and April this year, the Ombudsman's Office reported on Saturday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the office's report -- titled "What happened to them?" -- the first four months of 2023 saw 3,406 complaints of missing women filed. Only 1,902 were found, and 1,504 are still missing, the report said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Peru's "situation... as to disappearances would be classified as a situation of imminent danger," said Isabel Ortiz, deputy for the Ombudsman.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The State is not taking action to prevent these types of events," which happen each year in the Andean nation of 33 million people, she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The State is not making the issue of disappearances (mostly kidnappings and abductions) a priority agenda item."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2022, more than 5,380 women, mostly girls and teenagers, were reported missing, a figure 9.7 percent lower than in 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to various feminist NGOs, the police and the prosecutor's office do not sufficiently investigate many cases because they believe that the women fled voluntarily. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>