The rape, mutilation, and death of 4-year-old Bokgabo Poo served as a sharp reminder to South Africans of the danger children face every day.

As the small girl’s location was sought, the nation held its breath as posters with appeals for assistance to locate her were shared on social media. She was later discovered to have been murdered, raped, and dismembered.

According to Vhonani Phetla, a junior researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-Africanist Thought and Conversation, statistics show that a war is being waged on children in the nation.