Child Brides

 Africa is home to 130 million child brides, both girls under the age of 18 who have already married and adult women who were married as children. 

Nearly 140 million girls and women in Africa have undergone female genital mutilation.

Child marriage and female genital mutilation are a violation of children’s rights. Yet, in many communities across the continent, girls continue to be at risk of one or both practices. Child marriage is present throughout the continent, with the highest levels across the Sahel and in pockets of Central and Eastern Africa. Nine out of ten countries with the highest levels of child marriage in the world are in sub–Saharan Africa, including respectively Niger, the Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Guinea and Nigeria.

“Ending child marriage is a key priority for UNICEF. To accelerate efforts, we need to invest in areas for high impact, notably reducing poverty as a main driver of child marriage, ensuring girls’ access to quality education and learning at scale and social and behaviour change in favour of girls’ and women’s full and active participation in social and economic life..." said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

If progress is not accelerated, an additional 45 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa will become child brides in the next decade, driven by slow progress and demographic growth.

130 million African girls and women today married as children - World | ReliefWeb