The office of the civil society organization, Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), in the Western Bahr el Ghazal State capital, Wau, on Friday, filed a case against a father who forced his 14-year-old daughter into marriage.
The state coordinator of CEPO, Stephen Robo Musa, told Radio Tamazuj Saturday that they got involved because the girl is a minor and ran away to seek help.
“Yesterday (Friday) we filed a case against a parent (father) of a child, a girl child of 14 years, who was married off on 29 November against her will,” he explained. “We saw that there is a slow response from the ministry concerned so we got involved as a civil society organization and filed a case which is now before the public prosecutor in Wau.”
According to Robo, the case will be moved to court for hearing.
“The girl’s family have already been summoned this (Saturday) morning and I hope their statements have been taken by the police at Suq Hajar Police Station,” he said.
According to UNICEF, child marriage is still a common practice in South Sudan. Most recent figures indicate that 52 percent of girls are married before they turn 18, with some girls being married off as young as 12 years old. Cultural practices dictate that when a child menstruates or gets her period, she is considered eligible to marry. In addition, 28 percent of girls who are married as children become pregnant before even reaching adulthood.
South Sudan’s Child Act of 2008 sets the minimum age of marriage for girls above 18 years old. Despite this law, child marriage is still practiced in many parts of South Sudan due to poverty, cultural practices, and a lack of enforcement of the law.