WARNING: GRAPHIC

A recent festival in southern Nigeria has sparked outrage after multiple videos surfaced online showing women being chased through the streets, stripped and sexually assaulted by groups of men in broad daylight.

The footage, recorded during the annual Alue-Do fertility festival in Ozoro, Delta State, has prompted a police investigation and resulted in several arrests, with authorities confirming that multiple suspects were in custody.

The videos have sparked global outcry, with many online describing the event as a “rape festival,” a term that highlights the scale and brutality of what was captured on camera.

In clips circulating on social media, women are seen running through crowded streets while groups of men pursue them. Moments later, the women are surrounded, their clothing torn off as they are groped and assaulted, while bystanders film and shout, with some appearing to cheer.

This wasn’t an isolated incident.

Multiple videos appear to show similar attacks unfolding across various locations during the festival, involving large groups of men and even young boys. Many of the victims, believed to be female students from a nearby university, have reportedly been hospitalized.

The scale of the violence and the number of participants quickly turned the incident into a national and international flashpoint, prompting a response from authorities.

Police in Delta State confirmed the arrest of multiple suspects in connection with the attacks, including a community leader and four young men identified in viral videos. Investigations are still ongoing.

State police spokesperson Bright Edafe said those involved would face charges, while Delta Police Commissioner Aina Adesola ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the State Criminal Investigation Department.

“The Commissioner of Police has instructed that the suspects be transferred to the State CID without delay. The Commissioner is committed to ensuring that anyone involved will be arrested and brought to justice,” Edafe said.

Describing the incident as sexual assault and public humiliation, Edafe noted that no formal rape complaints had been filed at the time and urged victims and witnesses to come forward with any information.

In the days that followed, the number of arrested suspects rose, with more than a dozen people in custody as investigators comb through videos and witness accounts. Police said the arrests were the result of a targeted investigation, adding that more suspects could still be identified as the probe continues.

But even as arrests were being made, authorities were also beginning to shape how the incident was understood. The police described the attacks in a preliminary finding as the work of “criminal elements” who hijacked the festival, a framing that attempts to separate the violence from the cultural event itself.

Local community leaders went further, denying that any rape had taken place and insisting the festival had been “misinterpreted.”

In a statement, they described the Alue-Do festival as a fertility ritual, saying symbolic acts such as dragging and pouring sand on individuals are traditionally meant to invoke blessings for couples struggling to conceive.

They added that claims of widespread sexual violence were “false and misleading,” maintaining that no rape had been officially recorded despite the multiple videos circulating online.

The leaders acknowledged that some individuals may have acted “irresponsibly,” but stressed that such behavior was not part of the tradition and should not be seen as representative of the festival itself.

However, that explanation has done little to reduce the backlash. Throughout social media, reactions have been swift and furious.

Videos of the attacks have been viewed millions of times across Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter), with many viewers shocked not only by the blatant violence, but how it was carried out in broad daylight and without intervention.

Different videos showed groups of men laughing and filming as they closed in on victims. In one clip, a young woman is seen crying and clutching her torn clothes while being assaulted by men who surround her.

One of the victims, Ezeugo Ijeoma Rosemary, a student, told authorities she was attacked moments after arriving near the area on a bike.

“Immediately I came down, they started shouting ‘hold her, hold her, that’s a woman’, and they swooped on me like bees,” she said.

“A large crowd started pulling my clothes until they stripped me naked. They were pulling my breasts and touching my whole body … I was shouting for help.”

She said she was eventually rescued by a bystander, but her phone was taken, adding that she is still dealing with pain and trauma and has not returned to school since the incident.

The visibility of the attacks has transformed the story from isolated incidents to a troubling pattern of collective violence in public spaces, perpetuated by a large group of men.

Local reports suggest that women were required to stay indoors during parts of the festival, with those who did not comply facing public targeting.

This context frames the footage as less random chaos and more as a response to an environment actively challenging women’s presence in public, sometimes violently.

Women’s rights advocates say the incident points to a deeper problem, one that extends beyond a single event.

“This is not just about what happened in those videos,” said Rita Aiki, a gender rights advocate with the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA).

“It’s about the conditions that make it possible for this kind of violence to happen in public, with so many people watching and no one stepping in.”

For many, the reaction surrounding the attacks has been as disturbing as the violence itself.

“It tells you something about what is being normalized in a given society,” Aiki said.

“When people can do this in the open, and others treat it like spectacle, it goes beyond individual actions.”

The incident has renewed concerns about the safety of women in public spaces, especially during large gatherings where accountability can easily diminish.

While authorities have stressed that the festival does not support violence, critics argue that separating the tradition from the incident does little to clarify how such attacks could happen openly and on such a large scale.