Child marriage

Drought-affected parts of Ethiopia are experiencing “dramatic” rises in child marriage as the biggest climate-related disaster in 40 years drives people to the brink, according to the director of Unicef.

Millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including sections of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti, have faced famine, malnutrition, and mass displacement as a result of three consecutive failed rainy seasons.

Many girls in Ethiopia are now married at a young age as their parents seek more finances through dowries from the husband’s family in the assumption that their daughters would be nourished and sheltered by wealthier families, according to Catherine Russell, Unicef’s executive director.

According to local government data, the practise has increased dramatically in some sections of the large Oromia region, according to the UN Children’s Agency.

Child marriage instances climbed by 51% in the East Hararghe zone, home to 2.7 million people, from 70 documented over a six-month period in 2020-21 to 106 in the same time the following year.

According to Unicef, it was only one of six drought-affected communities in Oromia that saw a significant increase in child marriages. Cases have nearly tripled in some areas.

According to data acquired by Unicef this week, 672 incidents of child marriage were documented between February and August last year, but that number increased to 2,282 between September last year and March this year, according to local government estimates.

“We’re seeing pretty big rises in child marriage,” Russell added, noting that more than 600,000 youngsters are likely to have dropped out of school as a result of the drought.

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